By Todd DeVries
Idaho’s families require actions, not words.
Last week, the Idaho House of Representatives passed a concurrent resolution calling for the creation of a Traditional Family Values Month. Passing this resolution is akin to lamenting the departure of the horse years after someone left the barn door open.
Decades of neglect and bad social policy have more to do with the difficulties families experience rather than a perceived lack of “traditional values.” The resolution decries the decline of two-parent households, noting that, in 1960, approximately 77.5% of children grew up with both parents at home. By 2021, this number fell to 37%. Worse, the resolution couches its rationale in religious and moral language that invalidates and denigrates parents who do not meet their very limited model.
Not everyone in our diverse society subscribes to or believes in their narrow and paternalistic religious worldview. Not everyone desires to live in a so-called traditional family structure. The resolution fails to consider education, racial/ethnic or sociocultural factors influencing family composition.
Truly supporting families requires meaningful social change.
- What are some ways our Legislature might better support Idaho families?
- Provide a meaningful tax credit so that parents who stay at home are not penalized for their decision to focus on their parenting.
- Eliminate the 6% tax that Idaho charges on food. This will immediately put money back in the pockets of those who need it most.
- Stop wasting time on state-sponsored tax vouchers (handouts) that benefit special interests and parochial schools. These vouchers only support the agendas of a minority of Idaho’s parents.
- Pass the supplemental school budget to fund education at the level the Legislature promised us back in 2022.
- Increase the state’s minimum wage so that all work is rewarded with a meaningful salary.
- Create legislation mandating equal pay for equal work so that all genders receive just value for their contributions.
In Idaho Falls, there are LGBTQIA+ parents raising healthy and well-adjusted children. In Bonneville County, there are single grandparents raising a second generation of children who need a safe and loving home. In eastern Idaho, there are parents struggling to balance custody, living arrangements and blended families while being loving and supportive, no matter where the children originate from.
All these families deserve both words of thanks and social policies to make parenting easier.
To quote a popular musical: “Do not talk of love, show me. Show me now!” We no longer live in a Beaver Cleaver world, where Father knows best and Mom is in the kitchen baking cookies.
And, in truth, what we call the “traditional” family was only applicable through social engineering. And only lived by people of a certain economic class. For most of human history, family units have not been what our state Legislature describes as “traditional.”
We need legislation that supports all families, not lip service to an idealized and romanticized past.