Senate Candidate Criticized for Saying Moms in Unhappy Marriages Should Stay Married for the Kids

Ohio Republican Senate hopeful JD Vance has landed in hot water among the public after he said that moms in unhappy marriages should stay married to their husbands for the sake of their children.

Vance made this statement when he visited the Pacifica Christian High School in September 2021 but Vice News only recently published what he said as his election campaign has kicked off. The senate candidate was responding to a moderator's question on the difference in the relationships between his grandparents and his parents.

Vance wrote in his bestselling book, "Hillbilly Elegy," that his mother and father had a violent marriage. His grandparents also had a chaotic relationship.

However, his grandparents never divorced and lived with their marital promise of "til death do us part." His parents, on the other hand, patched things up by the time he was born but he was mostly raised by the stability of his grandparents' guidance.

Vance said that after the 1980s, couples regarded marriage and divorce as "easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear." He felt that American families today have "a lot of very, very real family dysfunction that's making our kids unhappy."

"It's unbelievably dangerous!"

Democratic Senate election opponent Tim Ryan was one of the first to react to Vance's comments that suggested couples should stick it out, even in unhappy or violent marriages, for their children's sake. Ryan said that such a notion is wrong and "unbelievably dangerous," per Yahoo! News.

Ryan is said to be ahead of Vance in the polls by five points. Reports have it that Vance's party mates are concerned about his current standing in the mid-term elections. One longtime political campaign observer said that Vance has been on the worst campaign in the Republican's history.

Nurse Theresa Brown agreed with Ryan that Vance's view on marriage and divorce is "disgusting and dangerous." She said that all women deserve to live safely. Even former NBA player Rex Chapman could not help but tweet a reaction to Vance's statements.

Violent marriages are detrimental to the children

The World Heald Organization (WHO) released a report in March 2021 that cites the increasing rate of death in kids, especially infants and younger children, in homes with domestic violence. The agency also stated that children who grow up in a violent home environment could suffer mental, emotional, and behavioral issues.

Research has also shown that violence at home takes a toll on the kids. Experts even described children's trauma as similar to military soldiers' post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from combat, per USA Today.

Kids who see violence from their parents will model that behavior and find it difficult to trust other people when they are older. This will also bear a lot of weight on their adult relationships.

Studies have also revealed that only a small number of children of divorce struggle in the first few years after their parents ended their marriage. While divorce is extremely painful for the kids, they can bounce back from this with minimal scars compared to the trauma of violent life at home with both parents who keep fighting each other.