Parents Say It’s More Important for Their Kids to Make Money Than to Start Families
January 24, 2023
Only about a fifth of American parents say it’s important to them that their children get married and have a family. This is despite the fact that most parents find raising children to be rewarding and enjoyable, and almost a third of them say that being a parent is the most important part of their identity. What the vast majority of American parents—about 90%—do want for their children is financial independence and a job they enjoy doing.
In a new study on parental attitudes released today by Pew Research, almost half the parents surveyed say that it is not too important or not important at all to them if their children get married or have children. Even a college degree is more important than a family. As one 46-year-old-father in the survey put it, he was raising his children “with [an] emphasis on academic performance and attaining intellectual potential.”
