Recently, I was driving home with my two kids and changed the station from their pig-tailed pop to my favorite R&B station. I got the tail end of an announcement about the pregnancy of a favorite songstress of mine and my kids. Before I could finish mumbling my usual everybody-loves-a-new-baby-coo, my 9-year old daughter asked, "Who is she married to?" As usual, my 5-year-old son repeated his sister's words. I explained to my kids that as far as I knew, she wasn't married. Both remained silent with a furrowed brow, then my son asked, "Well, how is she going to have a baby, Mommy?"

My children's lack of understanding prompted me to delve deeper into why people have babies before marriage--is it a sign of the "anything goes" times or the perpetual snapshot of a somewhat fractured family?