One woman [who has decided not to have children] asked: "What would the return be on the investment? Are there any laws that would require my children to pay for my nursing home when I am old? Are they going to be a sufficient hedge against poverty and loneliness?" �

Some who have chosen to be childless have actually formed organizations in order to band together. The group "No Kidding" was formed in Atlanta four years ago as a social outlet for couples choosing to have no children. �[One woman] explained that "No Kidding" members are more likely to talk about pets, travel, or other common interests. Kids rarely come up as a topic of conversation. "People think we sit around and talk about how we hate kids, but we almost never mention kids," Traci explained. No wonder.

Another woman in the Atlanta group explained, "you focus those motherly feelings elsewhere. For us, our dogs get all that love."

Couples with minor children in the house have worse marriages than their kid-free peers. But having adult children actually slows the decline in marital quality. In other words, raising kids is a pain, but when they turn into grandbaby-delivery systems, it's nothing but love.

The number of women 15 to 44 forgoing or delaying motherhood has grown nearly 10 percent since 1990, when roughly 24.3 million were in that class. � The Census Bureau said 18 percent of women ages 40 to 44 are child-free, a number that has doubled since 1976.

Australian family life has undergone dramatic change in the past 20 years but the divorce rate is no higher than it was in 1981. Surprised? David de Vaus, the senior research adviser at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and author of a new book about the Australian family, says many doomsayers have got it wrong. "I hear people say the divorce rate is increasing, and that half Australian marriages end in divorce," he says. "Both statements are patently untrue." In 1981 there were 11.9 divorces per 1000 married women, and in 2000 there were 12 divorces per 1000 married women. As for the oft-quoted 50 per cent failure rate, Professor de Vaus, who is also professor of sociology at La Trobe University, says the real figure is one-third of current marriages. "That 50 per cent figure is for the US," he says.

"[M]ost workplaces are still modeled on an outdated definition of an ideal worker -- someone who works more than 50 hours a week and doesn't take breaks to raise children," says Joan Williams, co-director of the Gender, Work & Family Project at the American University Law School. "God forbid if you are single mother trying to live up to that ideal without a wife."

For the most part, meetings of the child-free take place online, at websites such as Rant!, which last week had 35,509 messages from people who just can't stand the sight, smell or sound of other people's offspring. A quick browse showed that children who peer under toilet doors are particular pests, but so are "Dumb Moos" (their mothers) who apparently have "dumpy asses, saggy boobs and a look of defeat" on their faces.

The new movement not only seeks change in the workplace but hopes to focus Americans on the way time poverty translates into a weakening sense of community, fragmented families, illness, and a fast-food society obsessed with consumption -- the reward for working so hard. It's time to ask the big question, says de Graaf: "What is an economy for?" The answer might prove to be as stunning as the first great American experiment.

"If the goal is to look at individual benefits and determine who should be eligible beyond spouses, then we will join the discussion," Reilly told the Judiciary Committee. The Rev. Christopher Coyne, spokesman for O'Malley, said the church is specifically concerned about addressing benefits that affect children in gay families, such as education and health. Extending these benefits would not in any way contradict the Catholic Church's commitment to matrimony, he said. "I think what's actually being said is that the benefits that are necessary for the protection of children and families don't necessarily involve any kind of a redefinition of relationship or marital status," Coyne said. Reilly told reporters after the hearing that the bill under consideration is a bad solution to a problem that could be solved through simply extending certain benefits, such as hospital visitation, bereavements rights and health insurance, to gay couples. "Just to put the title of marriage on it, I think that's a wrong way to go," he said.

Given the enormous rise in the divorce rate in the Kingdom � the second-highest in the world � the head of Jeddah�s marriage court, Sheikh Saleh Ahmad Habad, has called for urgent steps to address the issue ... A study conducted by Dr. Ebtisam Halawani at King Abdul Aziz University revealed that the main reason most women left their spouses was ill-treatment and violence. Most divorces occur during the first three years of marriage, the study said. Polygamy, according to Abdullah Al-Fawzan, a professor and sociologist at King Saud University in Riyadh, is responsible for up to 55 percent of divorces. He added that the loss of trust, sincerity, compassion and cooperation were also factors in the failure of marriages. The involvement of husbands in illicit relationships is a factor according to 38 percent of divorcees. Since few couples can get to know each other before getting married, the incompatibility and misunderstanding that can arise as a result often lead to separation, Professor Fawzan added.

After discussing the merits of both events at length, Julie and Ian Bowman, 7 and 5, agreed that their mother Ariel Binder's wedding in Galesburg Saturday was "way more fun" than their father Marcus' wedding in Peoria last March, the children reported Monday.

Calling all dads! Chances are you�ve got a full work week, bills to pay, chores to do, possibly child support to pay � and kids that you don�t see nearly enough of. well, take heart � �Dads� Time� is here! Sponsored by the Fatherhood Program of Carlton County, Dads� Time is for all fathers who want to be more involved in the lives of their children. It�s as simple and straightforward as that � and it�s free!

Fathers involved in acrimonious family break-ups will be granted significantly more access to their children under plans being considered by ministers today. Under the proposals drawn up by senior judges, parents facing traumatic custody battles will be told by experts of the damage children suffer when separated from a parent. The divorcing couple will then be required to agree a "parenting plan" which spells out the necessity for children to spend plenty of time with their fathers as well as their mothers. Mothers who refuse to comply could find fathers' access to their children increased.

As gay advocates prepared for the first-ever Statehouse hearing on legalizing same-sex marriages, key lobbyists said Wednesday that legislative support could be building for a bill that would do the exact opposite. The House and Senate are scheduled to meet in joint session Nov. 12 to consider a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman an initiative that was defeated last year by more than half of the state's 200 lawmakers ... the Massachusetts high court heard testimony on a case that could make the state the first in the country to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. A decision in that case, which was filed by seven same-sex couple who were denied licenses, has been expected since early July. The court, however, waived its own internal deadline, leaving advocates on both sides unclear how to approach the impending legislative debates.

A protest group campaigning to change the way fathers are treated in family courts held a protest today with a huge mobile gun.

Fathers 4 Justice held the demonstration and rally in London to highlight the organisation�s efforts to ensure divorced fathers are given proper access to their children.

Michael Cox, the group�s legal adviser, said 2,000 fathers took part in the protest with one driving the Abbott self propelled gun to symbolise their �Dad�s Army�.

Police said only 350 protesters had gathered in Trafalgar Square before marching to Temple Place via the Royal Courts of Justice and Lincoln�s Inn Fields where many barristers are based.

Two members of the group, dressed as Batman and Robin, are already into the second day of a week long roof top protest at the Royal Courts.

Why this greater freedom generally allowed young men has translated into extreme licence in The Bahamas is because of the absence of the father in the home, who would otherwise serve as disciplinarian and enforcers of the rules. This brings me back to the crux of the matter. Why are so many black homes fatherless? And why are black men so confused about our masculinity?

The article uses the language of class warfare and speaks of the "married class" and of the transfer of wealth into that "class." The unmarried, it seems, are becoming disgusted by this discrimination, and because of their increased proportion of the population, they don't feel like they have to put up with it anymore.

I find the view of marriage as a "bag of goodies" that gives great financial advantages to the married couple to be alien and repellent. It is a perspective of people who are not connected to eternity, who think of themselves and the here and now, without any consideration of those who have gone before or those who will come after.

In New York, judges in divorce cases will soon be told to direct couples with children to attend parent education programs, the office of Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye said yesterday. New York is one of the last states to take steps to see that divorcing parents are instructed in ways to reduce the emotional stress on their children. New guidelines, produced by a committee appointed by Judge Kaye, are to take effect gradually over the rest of 2003.

The best way for a dad-to-be to find out how to deal with colicky, crying babies, diaper changes and the stress that a newly arrived child can bring to a relationship is by learning directly from an experienced father, said Kevin Murray, a fatherhood consultant with Early Education Services. This weekend, he said, prospective fathers will get a chance to learn about what to expect with a new baby at the service's "Boot Camp for New Dads," a hands-on three-hour course slated for Sunday.

The key to resolving a contentious divorce could involve divorcing your attorney. That's what members of an ad hoc committee suggested to Utah lawmakers Monday during a meeting of the Subcommittee on Divorce, Child Custody and Visitation. Committee members pointed to a 12-year study of contested divorces by the University of Virginia, which showed that when divorcing parties were forced to undergo mediation instead of heading to court, 80 percent of those cases reached an out-of-court settlement. Of the cases that were not required to undergo mediation, 80 percent entered a full-blown custody hearing.

"Those who assume that only bad people in bad marriages cheat can blind themselves to their own risk," said Beth Allen, a researcher at the University of Denver who, with colleagues David Atkins, of the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, and the late Shirley Glass, a Baltimore family psychologist, recently completed an extensive review of infidelity research. "They're unprepared for the risky times in their own lives, the dangerous situations when, if they aren't careful, they'll suddenly be very tempted," Allen said. The prevalence of infidelity is coming into sharper focus. Several recent surveys suggest that the majority of people do not cheat, either because they cannot bear the thought of betrayal, cannot drum up the interest or perhaps have already known the profound pain of losing an important relationship. Yet the studies find that more than one in five Americans do have an affair, at least once in their lives, and that women are now about as likely as men to cross the line.

The majority of babies who live alternately with their divorced parents develop long-lasting psychological problems, new research has found. Such arrangements cause enduring "disorganised attachment" in 60 per cent of infants under 18 months, says a clinical psychologist and family therapist, Jennifer McIntosh. As older children and adults, they have "alarming levels of emotional insecurity and poor ability to regulate strong emotion". Dr McIntosh called the presumption of 50-50 shared parenting, the focus of a federal parliamentary inquiry into child custody, a "dangerous idea" ... "Shared parenting in the absence of a parental relationship that can support the necessary co-operation is fraught for children, particularly pre-schoolers. Equally, shared residence, that often manifests in week-about arrangements, runs counter to the developmental needs for a secure predictable existence with their primary attachment figure, be that father or mother."

''My dad was never around, and I had to do everything. I don't talk to my father. I don't have anything to say to him. I don't feel that father-son bond. You're looking at somebody who just got my mom pregnant.'' ''If your father had been around, do you think life would have been different?'' I asked. ''Yes,'' the inmate replied. ''Yes, I think it would have been a lot different.'' ''What did you miss?'' ''Just those simple talks about life,'' the inmates said. ''Things you should do, and things you shouldn't do. Everything I learned, I learned on my own.''

The seminar, sponsored by Marriage and Family Builders of St. Clair County, is part of a growing national movement to save marriages as the nation's divorce rate flitters around 50%. "The divorce rate is sky-rocketing and people are investing their weekends in how to go the distance," said Randy Withenshaw, chairman of the group and a pastor at Ross Bible Church in Port Huron Township. "Marriage is an incredibly dynamic relationship and people want to grow." The three-day seminar, led by Family Life Ministries of Little Rock, Ark., focused on teaching couples skills such as communication, how to handle conflict and building romance. The lobby was filled with tables of books on marriage and parenting for sale to attendees.

Ann Kearney-Cooke, who runs the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute and works with adolescent girls, said that these depictions of violently powerful women, often created by men, are actually debilitating to women in the real world. "What's going on is that as women have gained power economically and politically, the message has been that to be successful, you have to be like a man," she said. "That's carried through to roles like this. This acting hypermasculine is a way of glorifying men, not women."