“We need to redeem the project of parenthood instead of viewing children as blights, problems, drains on your life.”

In the third of our ARC vision series, mother and children’s rights campaigner Katy Faust calls for a restoration of the family to the very centre of our societies. Too often, we overlook the value of the family and even view children as an undesirable burden.

But the evidence is overwhelming that there is no better model than the family for our core human relationships. The family is the primary crucible for character formation. Strong families, deeply embedded in wider communities, create a thick, resilient, and interconnected social fabric. This is the best environment for children to grow up in.

Children are worth the sacrifice, Katy argues, and this better story needs to be told throughout culture. “We need more examples of loving, wonderful, intact mothers and fathers raising their children together” if we are to see the next generation thrive and become the “generation that heals this broken world”.

---

Katy Faust is the founder and President of Them Before Us, a global non-profit defending children’s rights in matters of marriage and family.