The trend is not demographically uniform, instead tracking the nation’s widening gap in income and opportunity.Among women with a bachelor’s degrees or higher, 90 percent adhere to the old playground song and put marriage before a baby carriage.And while we’re at it, we have a special, dedicated etramping page over at Agoda for booking hotels and hostels. Just follow the link, and enter the code AGODAETR10 (you need to enter this code before payment, case-sensitive). They describe themselves as mild-mannered introverts who suffer from an array of chronic medical problems. On their wedding day in 2011, the groom was 43 years old and the bride 39, yet it was marriage No. Today, their blended family is a sprawling, sometimes uneasy ensemble of two sharp-eyed sons from her two previous husbands, a daughter and son from his second marriage, ex-spouses of varying degrees of involvement, the partners of ex-spouses, the bemused in-laws and a kitten named Agnes that likes to sleep on computer keyboards.Accidents and mishaps are often a part of travelling abroad, and so you shouldn’t forget to cover yourself and your belongings for any eventuality.Jump over to our budget travel insurance page and get clued up on who we use as our vital travel safety net.According to the Department of Agriculture, the average middle-class couple will spend 1,080 to raise a child to age 18.Factor in four years of college and maybe graduate school, or a parentally subsidized internship with the local theater company, and say hello to your million-dollar bundle of oh joy.

In increasing numbers, blacks marry whites, atheists marry Baptists, men marry men and women women, Democrats marry Republicans and start talk shows.

Fewer women are becoming mothers — about 80 percent of those of childbearing age today versus 90 percent in the 1970s — and those who reproduce do so more sparingly, averaging two children apiece now, compared with three in the 1970s.

One big reason is the soaring cost of ushering offspring to functional independence.

They love crossword puzzles, football, going to museums and reading five or six books at a time.

If the Burnses seem atypical as an American nuclear family, how about the Schulte-Waysers, a merry band of two married dads, six kids and two dogs?