Great marriages produce great parents.
"A healthy husband-wife relationship is essential to the emotional health of children in the home. When there is harmony in the marriage, there is stability within the family. A strong marriage provides a haven of security for children as they grow in the nurturing process. Healthy, loving marriages create a sense of certainty for children. When a child observes the special friendship and emotional togetherness of his parents, he or she is more secure simply because it isn't necessary to question the legitimacy of the parents' commitment to one another.
Children posses an amazing type of "radar" that hones in on parental conflict. When a child perceives more weakness than strength in his or her parents' relationship, a low-level anxiety results, ultimately putting a strain on every other learning discipline the child experiences. A child knows intuitively, just as his or her own parents knew when growing up, that if something happens to mom and dad, the child's whole world will collapse. If the parents' relationship is in question in the mind of a child, that child will live his life on the brink of collapse.
When the marital relationship is made beautiful, what impressionable child would not want to be part of the family? When two are mysteriously and beautifully united in marriage, what child would not seek the comforts of that togetherness? The best years of parenting will flow out of the best years of marriage. Protect your marriage!"
Source: On Becoming Babywise II
