By Mandi Gosling

A Pew Research Center report released this week found that young Americans think it is more important in life to be a good parent than it is to have a successful marriage.

In the survey, 52 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds said being a good parent was one of the most important things in life but only 30 percent said the same thing about having a successful marriage.

Comparatively, of the Gen-Xers who were asked the same questions in 1997, 42 percent counted good parenting among their highest values and 35 percent said a successful marriage was important to them.

These numbers suggest a significant number of Millennials care more about good parenting and less about marriage, but what is possibly most noteworthy is they do not see the two things as necessarily needing to go together as much as previous generations did.

Are you more concerned about what kind of parent you will be than what kind of spouse you will be?  And do you think the two should go together?