No cavities, Mom, I wanted to shout as I rose from the dentist chair after my six-month checkup. In raising me, my parents stressed the old admonitions: brush your teeth, eat your vegetables, look both ways before crossing the street, share with others, and so on. Only now do I realize how much I owe them for my current health and happiness.

I realized how fortunate I was when I read a New York Times article with the new statistic: More than half of babies born to women younger than thirty now are born to unmarried parents. In many cases, to two young people who don’t even plan to be married, at least to each other. Are these parents dedicated to raising their children as mine were, or are the children simply an afterthought? (See a previous blog, The Parent Divide.)

Some of the unmarried parents express disillusionment with their own parents’ marriages, but it appears marriage, perfect or not, gives a child advantages. The article states: “Researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems.”

Children are a nation’s most precious resource. No country can succeed if it wastes the lives of its children.