Single Moms: The Stress Of Single Mothers

The trend of single parent families show that there is an increasing amount of lone parent families it has tripled during the last 30 years. However it is important to see that most single parents do not choose to live this way and it is more likely for them to develop new relationships and

The stereotypical view often associated with single motherhood is one of a chaotic household where there is no supervision and where most of the children are left to fend for themselves. A typical American household is one where both parents are present and care about the wellbeing of their family. Often times, single mothers are frowned upon because of the stereotypes associated with the label. They are seen as destructive household where there is an increase in chances “that the children involved will experience alcoholism, mental illness, academic failure and other troubles” (Roiphe 54-55). This study done by Princeton sociologist, Sara S. McLanahan, paints single motherhood as being extremely damaging to the children involved. Roiphe

Growing up with only one single parent is one of the most significant challenges that I have ever had to face. I have not only grown up without a proper father figure, but the struggles that my mother and family have had to overcome were challenging in itself. Single mothers, especially those that must provide for more than one child, are hard working individuals. Single mothers always put their family before themselves in order to support their families. I myself have witnessed the selfless deeds that my own mother has done. She works very hard to make sure that me, and my other two siblings, are not in need of anything. My mother makes sure that she had the ability to provide for her family no matter the conflict. As for myself, I have concluded that single mothers do not have to be dependent on someone else, they are capable of many things that break many patriarchal idea and thoughts.

A study has shown that these young mothers are struggling with their time and availability for their child and their needs. This study has come to conclude that single mothers usually spend only 3.4 hours with their children. These mothers spend most of their time with work, school, yard work, and housecleaning.

Single parents don’t necessarily raise their children alone; they can have support from family and friends. Single parents also tend to parent better, they are stricter with their decisions and their children respect their choices. When it comes to creating a healthy family, it's not about the number of parents, but the quality of parenting a child receives that is most important. A home is only "broken" when healthy family interactions break down, for example when people stop communicating adequately. In the situation where both parents are raising the child, but the family situation isn’t healthy it can do more harm on the child than good. Certain situations such as a violent household

Summary: Singles mother hurt themselves and children by trying to show society that they are strong and that they can survive by their own. This source show us how kids can be affected in a bad way because of their mother status. When those women decide to bring to the family a new integrant, kids get hurt with their emotional and in their academy life as shown in this quote “ The more “transitions” experienced by a child — the arrival of a stepparent, a parental boyfriend or girlfriend, or a step- or half sibling — the more children are likely to have either emotional or academic problems, or both.” (Hymowitz, 2014)

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

Families who have dealt with being a single parent typically see themselves being judged by other parents. For example, Jamie Rush a teen mom said "If he acts up, or if he falls over and bumps his head, I always think people are looking at me as if to say "It's because you're a teenager." (Rush 3). This shows that teen moms are trying their best and love their kids too. Schools are helping teenage single parents. Take the case of Jamie, after she gave birth to her son, she went to an alternative school with a built in daycare (Rush 1). This tells you that there is help for teens out there, but it's not always available to everyone. Socially speaking, one of the primary causes of single parents is because of one of the parent's death. Through research, we have found that the primary cause of single-parent households was because of parental death (Chamie 1). This proves that not all single-parent homes is because of teen pregnancies. As a result, there are many single parents struggling with being judged, or because of significant other's death. But there are schools, helping

This journal explains that researchers, such as Amato, have several theories that explain why and how children growing up with single parents have an elevated risk of experiencing problems. Some of these problems include cognitive thinking, social interaction and the emotional well-being of the child. Most of the theories discuss economic and parental resources available to children. They also talk about the stressful events and circumstances to which these children must adapt.

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

“Single-parent families now constitute 30 percent of all families with minor children and are the most rapidly growing families in America” (as cited in Dowd, 1997). When people hear the term ‘single-parent’ they automatically think it means a person who is the legal guardian of a child or children. It is typical for a single-parent to be a woman, because the statistics on the proportion of the children who live with their mother is at 87 percent, while a small 13 percent live with their father (as cited in Dowd, 1997). Because of the diversity in household types, a common question has been asked several times. Which type is better? Raising a child in a single-parent household or a two-parent household?

One of the studies show how single parenthood can be bad for a child, but also can a two-parent home with a no financial problems but stress and conflict between the pair can be as or even more destructive to a child. “A two parent, financially stable home with stress and conflict would be more destructive to children than a one parent, financially stable home without stress and conflict” (Roiphe 61). This is a statistic from Sara S. McLanahan, she is basically stating that a single parent with good finances and no stress or conflict can be much better than a home with two parents and financial stability but with strass and conflict can greater hurt the development of the child. The author agrees with this statement, but overall the author believes that all people should realize that single parenthood is becoming more of a normal thing than before and we as Americans should realize this and should help single parents become successful and have it were they can be financially successful without a

Single- parent families are characterized in several different ways. These include single- parenthood due to the following: divorce, as a result of death, individual choice (unwed pregnancy, adoption), or types of temporary work-related situations, such as military deployment (Gladding, 2015). Regardless of what leads to the family being restructured, the hardships and stressors that the family faces during this time are quite similar. Every aspect of the family system tends to change, which includes but is not limited to income, housing, parenting styles and relationships with family

The single parent also showed lower ego functioning and in turn were less playful with the children, less empathetic, less tolerant of negative behavior from the children, and more likely to display non-age appropriate behavior (Walker & Hennig, 1997). Single mothers are more likely to make negative statements about and to their children, therefore resulting in a low self esteem in the child. Walker and Hennig (1997) also discovered an up side to single parenting, the relationship between parent and child was more nurturing. This could come from the loss of intimacy in the single parent's life.