Marriage gets little respect on US network television shows, even in prime time, says a not too surprising report from the Parents Television Council. After studying four weeks of scripted shows on the major networks at the start of the 2007-2008 season, the council concludes that prime-time TV “seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative light”.

What appears to fascinate the networks, according to the report, is bizarre sexual behaviour including partner swapping and paedophilia. Visual references to “kinky” practices outnumbered married-sex references by nearly 3 to 1.Behaviour that was once seen as “fringe, immoral or socially destructive has been given the imprimatur of acceptability by the television industry” and children are absorbing or even imitating it, the report says.

References to adultery outnumbered references to marital sex by 2 to 1. The “family hour” -- the first hour of prim-time TV,… click here to read whole article and make comments

Australia seems to have recovered from a period of declining birth rates and the government has no need to encourage couples to have more children, according to the country’s Productivity Commission. More babies were born in Australia last year than in any other year -- more than 285,000 -- bringing the country’s birth rate to around 1.93, its highest level since the early 1980s. In a report issued this week the commission says Australia’s fertility rate may have stabilised at 1.75 to 1.9 babies per woman. “Overall, Australia appears to be in a safe zone of fertility, despite fertility levels being below replacement levels," it says, adding, “There is no fertility crisis.”

As the country’s birth rate declined to 1.73 in 2001 there were fears about a smaller workforce with a burgeoning older population to support. In 2004 the government introduced a baby bonus, a one-off payment that now stands… click here to read whole article and make comments

A British shopping centre has come up with a brilliant marketing pitch to women customers: you can burn as many calories on a shopping trip as in a workout at the gym. A study by the Golden Square Shopping Centre shows that the average female shopper will walk 2.02 miles while choosing her purchases. If she makes five trips a month she will have walked 10.1 miles, or 121.2 miles a year. Since walking a mile burns off an average of 100 calories, women will work off more than 200 calories per trip, or 12,120 per year. The study revealed that 39 per cent of women believe a serious shopping excursion demands the same sort of physical energy as a gym session.

Men’s trips tend to be shorter and less frequent, only burning off 8928 calories a year. But Brits on average browse through 25 shops every month, or 300… click here to read whole article and make comments

The idea of the “super-mum” who holds down a full-time job while successfully running her home has lost support over the past decade, new British research shows. In a book published this week, Women in Employment: Changing Lives and New Challenges, Cambridge University sociology professor Jacqueline Scott says that both women and men are becoming more likely to believe that the family will suffer if a woman works full-time. The conclusion was based on social attitudes surveys over the past three decades in Britain, the US and Germany.

Professor Scott’s analysis shows that in 1994, 51 per cent of women in Britain and 52 per cent of men said they believed family life would not suffer if a woman went to work. By 2002 those proportions had fallen to 46 per cent of women and 42 per cent of men. There was also a decline in the number of people… click here to read whole article and make comments

Living together is about to get more serious in Australia, where the federal government has introduced legislation that will treat de facto relationships (including same sex) in exactly the same way as marriage. That may please some people -- until they consider what may happen to their property if their relationship breaks up after two years. At present, de facto couples have their disputes over children settled in the Family Court, while disputes over property are settled in the District Court. The proposed law would bring property settlements into the Family Court, where “future needs” relating to income, health and childcare can be taken into account.

“Marriage is being imposed on everyone whether they like it or not,” says Patrick Parkinson, professor of law at the University of Sydney. “It will come as a shock to some people.” He believes the “future needs” provision may be harmful to young people… click here to read whole article and make comments

If social stimulation protects people against dementia, as studies indicate, it is not surprising that new research from Scandinavia shows the mental benefits of marriage. Using data from Finland, Swedish researchers found that people living alone at midlife on were almost three times as likely to develop some level of cognitive impairment as those who were married or cohabiting, regardless of their living status later in life. The risk of developing Alzheimer’s, however, was not significant.

“This study points to the beneficial effects of a married life,” said Krister Hakansson of Vaxjo University and the Karolinska Institute. While any form of social interaction may be beneficial, he reasoned that a partner relationship would provide the most intense form of interaction. Widowed participants at midlife who did not remarry had the highest increased risk of any mental decline. However, genetic predisposition also played a part in the risk of Alzheimer’s. The… click here to read whole article and make comments

It is hard not to feel exasperated at the names some parents lumber their children with these days. There’s the surname brigade who think Jackson, Bailey, Maddison and Harrison are great names for their kids; the weird spellers whose offspring will spend their lives having to write down Jaxson, Baylee, Mikaela and Caitee -- if they know how; and then there’s the off-the-radar group like the Swedish parents who called their poor little mite Lego.

New Zealand seems to have more than its share of the last group. Recently a family court judge during a custody hearing had to deal with the extra issue of the child’s name: Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii. No kidding; that’s the moniker the girl’s mum chose, and very poor judgement she had shown, said the judge sternly. “It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and… click here to read whole article and make comments

Most American adults will be overweight or obese by 2030 and related health care spending will be more than US$950 billion, according to the research in the latest issue of the journal Obesity. "If these trends continue, more than 86% of adults will be overweight or obese by 2030 with approximately 96% of non-Hispanic black women and 91% of Mexican-American men affected," says Dr Youfa Wang, the lead author. He estimates that at least 1 in 6 health care dollars will be spent on obesity-related ailments.

There may be more than a smidgen of alarmism in the report. Looking even further into the future, Dr Wang projects that by 2048 100% of American adults will be obese. This seems improbable, as other researchers claim that the prevalence of anorexia nervosa is also increasing. Surely skinny people will not become extinct! Nonetheless, public health experts are preparing for the worst. Overweight and obese… click here to read whole article and make comments

It’s really hard to work out what is happening in Russia. Most people in the capital believe the execution of Nicholas II of Russia and his family was a crime, according to a poll. Well over half (58.7 per cent) of respondents feel this way, while 27.5 per cent believe the incident was justified by political circumstances.

When asked about the restoration of the monarchy in Russia, 39.6 per cent of respondents say it is unlikely to happen and they would feel negatively about it, while 19.2 per cent also claim it is unlikely to happen but they would feel positively about it. Nearly 30 per cent thought it was likely -- 17.2 per cent of those feeling negatively about it and 12 per cent positively.

On July 17, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna -- a direct descendant of Nicholas II -- said Russians should still… click here to read whole article and make comments

British teachers continue to warn that the decline of family life is making their job extremely difficult. Speaking to delegates at a meeting of Voice, the union for education professionals, general secretary Philip Parkin said: “I’m making no judgment on this, but the focus on the primacy of the individual, rather than the community; the changing pattern of family structures; the shortening length of many relationships; the creation of many more step families; the emphasis on parents going out to work and the consequent perception of the reduced value and worth of the full-time parent have all changed the way we behave.”

Parents were failing to take responsibility for their children and there was little support in the community for the task of bringing up children, said Mr Parkin. In the classroom there was low-level disruption and cheek showing a lack of respect -- “That sense of ‘you can’t tell… click here to read whole article and make comments