Hardships That Single Parents Face in Child Rearing

Did you know that more than one fourth of all children in the United States live with only one parent? Single parenting has become more common today than in the 1800s, when it was sometimes frowned upon. As the years have gone by, it has become easier and easier for women to become single parents. In the 1800’s if husbands died or abandoned their families, women had no choice but to work for extremely low and unfair wages. Today, most men and women are treated equal and receive equal wages making it easier for women to be single parents. This concept is shown in Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer through Aunt Polly in the 19th century, single parenting is also common today.

In 2002, number of children living with their single parent was 16.5 million (Davidson). The most important thing is that each single-parent family is different from the other. Children who live with a widowed mother will definitely be living a different home life from children with divorced parents or the one whose parents were never married. Children of the parents who were divorced will always have some kind of relationship with parents and parents’ partners. But it is obvious that children from single-parent families face tougher times economically as well as

The essay “In Defense of Single Motherhood” by journalist Katie Roiphe is best summed up by the title. The writer is a single mother of two children and is fighting back against the stereotype that say children from a single parent household will not have as fulfilling a life as they would with two parents. She goes on to explain how she believes the studies on single mother-led households are flawed.

American families have never been as diverse as they are today. There is a constant changing definition of what we call “family”. We as Americans are straying further and further from the idea of a classic nuclear family. One of the biggest reasons is a dramatic rise in kids living with a single parent. In 2014, just 14% of children younger than 18 lived with a stay-at-home mother and a working father who were in their first marriage (Livingston, 2015). This research will address in depth why households are now more diverse than ever, what’s the normal family now, and why aren’t the laws adjusting to how the average American family lives today.

Today, many households are headed by single women raising children, some with the presence or involvement of the father and others without. According to Vargas et al. (2016), parenting by a single mother is defined as a home sustained by a maternal caregiver for many reasons to include absence, neglect, divorce, or death of the other parent. According to Anderson (2002), half of American children at some point in their childhood will live in a household that’s being reared by a single parent, who is primarily the mother. Lowry (2005) uses the term “social disaster” when describing the epidemic of absenteeism of father from the household.

In the United States around 82.2% of custodial parents are mothers; 30.4% of them and their children lived in poverty in the year 2009 (Wolf, 2017). The gender gap in the workplace can keep a single mother from being able to fully get out of poverty. A single mother earns less than a single father does. In the year 2015 it was noted that single mothers earned 70.7% of the income single fathers had earned (Industry Week Staff, 2017). It is harder for a single mother, who may have never been married to begin with, to invest in schooling when she is trying to cover the costs of her children and

The idyllic American family has changed drastically over the years. What once was a traditional father-mother-child household has turned to a single-parent-child dynamic. As far back as time goes we can see the nuclear family, where the father is the provider and protector of the family and the mother cares for the home and children. Throughout past decades the nuclear family has waned considerably as we watch government step in to protect and provide by means of local police or National Guard and programs like WIC or welfare, and women are enabled to find their independence. Statistically, the nuclear family is almost non-existent, in an article by Blanchard-Fields, Hertzog, Stein, and Pak it states, “The traditional family model—the husband as breadwinner and the wife as homemaker—makes up only 7% of the families in U.S. society.”

The purpose of this article is to argue the fact that American society has for years looked down upon single mothers as irresponsible and dangerous and that no family structure of any kind can guarantee that children will grow up to be productive citizens. The article brings to light that raising children as a single mom really all depends who you are and instead of criticizing these mothers we should be helping them by providing more resources. 2. Who is the audience for this argument? This article was written for several different audiences.

“10 Things a Single Parent Wants You to Know” is an article in Reader’s Digest by Jen Babakhan. This begins by saying that just because you have a spouse that works a lot does not mean you are a single parent. One significant difference is that single parents provide all the income and attention in the household. Next the article discusses that while parenting alone has it’s challenges it’s also very rewarding. I relate this article back to the chapter and class discussions on different family structures and socioeconomic factors.

For instance, Polakow (1993) pointed out that “only 51 percent of single mothers were awarded child support payments, and of that group only 26 percent actually received their full award” (p.59). Having insecure income and the absence of child support are known as the factors why single mother live under poverty and stressful lives. “Without financial aid, single mother students — a total of about 2 million — have little or no means to contribute financially to their educational expenses” (D, 2017, n.p). In addition, some of single mother can’t qualify for the assistance programs because their income has a little bit over limit. Therefore, most of solo mother force themselves to stay home or reduce their working hours to meet the requirement for the application of public assistance. To sum up, being single mothers are very stressful and challenges because most of them live under poverty

Single parent homes is something that we see more common in our generation than it has been in past generations. I have raised in a single parent home and now I am raising my child in a single parent home. I never really thought about all the stigma associated with being involved in this type of family types. According to Birkenmaier, Berg-Weger, and Dewees, society and some social service providers have viewed single parenthood as a blight that leads to insecure, delinquent, and otherwise unhappy and dysfunctional households. (20114.pg. 252) while there can be some downfalls for living in this family type, it is not always the worse possible outcome. I feel that seeing the struggle that my mother faced to get us up and dressed for school,

Parenting is hard! Being responsible for the development, protection, growth, health, and care for a child is all consuming and at times overwhelming. From sun up until well past sun down, day after day, year after year, the raising of a child is the full time job that never offers a break. Rewarding, of course, difficult, hell yes it is. Single parents face all of the challenges and difficulties of any parent but have to face them without the benefit of partner, a co-parent to help carry some of the burdens. Single parent homes are not a new phenomenon; they are not unique to any one culture, and are increasing in numbers. ("Single-Parent Families ") Single parents by default must do the work of two people; this requires them to be

Parenting as a single mother, or single father, can be a very difficult time and could result in relationship issues. It can interrupt major things which include: schooling or education at any level, friendship concerns, or even issues with the mother or father’s parents (Lowen, Linda). There are roughly 13.7 million single parents in the United States and of that, 22 million children fall under their responsibility (“The Most Important Statistics About Single Parents”). Parenting can be a tough job no matter what, but doing it alone can be even

Single parent households are a sensitive topic that is highly debated today. This topic is one that has repercussions for both the parents and the children involved. However, regardless of the different consequences, these households continue to grow in the coming years. “In 1970, traditional two-parent married households dominated, making up 81 % of all households in the United States (US). By 2012 this number dropped to around 66 % … In 2012, approximately 21 million children, or 28 % of all children in the US, lived with one parent” (Kramer, 2015). It is interesting to look at the way the single parent households continue to grow throughout the years, all while being a hot topic for discussion on its consequences. When thinking about a book to read for this course, there was no real choice. I stumbled upon this book and knew right away that I could benefit from this book, as well as connect to it on a deeper level and relate to it personally.

Being a single parent can bring a plethora of problems. It is much harder to maintain a set discipline routine when there is just one parent in the household. This one parent must play both the good cop and the bad cop role. It is much harder to discipline when you are the only parent. But the most difficult task of all while being a single parent is trying to find a