What we mean by “single-income family”

On some level, New Athens represents a set of strong opinions about children, parenting, and family formation. We’d like to be open about these opinions in order to help people make informed decisions about the city and us personally. In the first place, we believe is it normal and good for all people to strive to have kids, even if they ultimately don’t. Beyond this belief, our primary stake-in-the-ground is that the strongest families are those where one parent is home. We are intentionally not stating an opinion on who that should be, though we’re also not shy to point out that, for most of human history, this role was played by women. In New Athens, we additionally take no stand on work hours. Both parents working part-time is OK. The point is is that one parent ought to be home. Deeper, in modern terminology, we believe the concept of a “free range” childhood is directionally correct, and that helicoptor parenting generally takes children in the wrong direction.