Who said that two 18 year olds with no means of supporting either themselves or a family are ready for marriage? I don’t think I wrote that. I’m quite sure I did not.
No, it is not an oversimplification, nor is it “inane”. Heaven help the parent who has to parent alone, although many have to do it through no fault of their own, and I hope you didn’t choose that for yourself or your daughter. I hope you didn’t decide on your own that her father was someone you could dispense with, that your MA and your house and your wonderful job cou:thumbsup:ld replace her dad in her life. I can’t imagine my boys being brought up thinking they don’t need their dad. Children need, want, and where possible have a right to be raised in the same house with both of their parents, parents who love each other and have one life together. I hope you are not implying that this is some kind of a frivolous luxury that being “well-adjusted” could possibly prove a child has no need of. Human resilience does not mean that what was taken away was never needed in the first place.
BTW, why did you choose to write that you “found yourself” single and pregnant? Bravo to you (and I mean that!) for choosing to take on all the duties of parenthood when your child’s father wasn’t there to support you and your daughter, but why did you choose to put it that way? Surely you did not gain the age of 30 and a professional degree without knowing that this was a reasonably likely consequence of sex outside of marriage.
Your daughter was not a foundling. You did not wake up pregnant as one wakes up having grown or lost hair or height. Pregnancy requires someone to have made a choice; it does not just happen. Even Our Lord was conceived only after Our Lady made her brave fiat. Either you decided to become pregnant or someone else criminally made that decision for you, but it did not happen by no one’s decision.
Still, it happens very often to women that support implied outside of marriage is not forthcoming when pregnancy comes about. The people who raise children alone are heroes, no matter how they find themselves with that task. We ought not imply that it is “inane” to not wish that on anyone or to tell them it is simply another choice of how to raise a child, though. It just isn’t. You deserved the help of a husband and she deserved a father. Bravo to you for all you did for her, but please do not imply that the resilience you and your daughter showed proves that marriage is merely an option someone looking to become a parent might consider.