Parenting
Sally bounces her six-month-old boy on her knee while she responds enthusiastically to my questions. At twenty-six she is a relatively young mother; however, Sally had her first child when she was only eighteen.
A wasn't using any birth control at the time," she tells me. "I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to support my kid without dropping out of college, but I made it! Joey here wasn't an accident," she tells me frankly. "I thought the relationship was going to last, but you know how these things go."
Many of the single mothers I interviewed for this study shared similar sentiments: most of expected their relationships with men would last and that they could form a "big, happy family." Their disillusionment has made some of them stronger, others bitter and mistrusting of members of the opposite sex. Sally is of the former camp; her lively attitude is refreshing, if not unusual for single moms, many of whom are stressed out much of the time.
Sally is an accountant and works full time. She had never been on welfare and makes enough money to support her and her two kids. When I ask her about her child care options, she wrinkles her nose.
That can be really difficult," she tells me. "I have gone through so many day care centers, it's not even funny."
The lack of community care for single working mothers is probably one of the most disheartening factors facing single moms. Modern American society offers little in terms of community...
What are these advantages? Simply put, everything that the single-parent household does not have. Again, this is not to indicate that automatically a single parent home is worse than a two-parent home. But when the parents are involved in their children's lives, are non-abusive, and are relatively happy with each other, then virtually all of the negative effects of growing up in and being part of a single-parent home
In addition to the psychological stressors, single parenting can also cause social pressures. The single parent lacks enough time or energy to meet potential new partners or to develop existing friendships. Similarly, the child may suffer socially by falling in with the wrong crowd at school to make up for the lack of attention experienced at home. Both parent and child might find themselves feeling socially isolated because of the
parent families caused by adoption by a single parent and divorce. A two parent family will always be considered the perfect family as it allows for a male and female role model. However, life is not always perfect and a changing society is creating new family dynamics within the community. From a two parent family structure the scene is changing to a single parent family created through divorce, lack of
Overview Single-parent families, by definition, are families having a single parent as the head of the family either by choice, as a consequence of death of the other partner, or divorce. It is important to note that over the last two decades, single parent families have been on the increase – effectively resulting in family structure changes. As a matter of fact, as Strong, DeVault, and Cohen (2010) point out, “in
Dating and Sexual Behavior Among Single Parents of Young Children and Effect on Their Children Among the different difficulties encountered by single parents with young kids, a prominent one is dealing with possible trade-offs between personal romance and parenting. Usually, single parents have a primary responsibility to caring for and raising young children; however, this may be accompanied by a longing for a sexual/romantic partner, as well. Trade-off-related difficulties are especially
Opportunities to Assist Single-Parent Families Although every single-parent family is unique, they all share the same challenges that are associated with life in the 21st century, as well as many that are more acutely manifested by virtue of their single-parent status. The traditional two-parent family has been increasingly replaced with single-parent families in recent years, and in some inner-city communities, they are the norm rather than the exception. Single-parent families
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