Single Moms: The Stress Of Single Mothers

However, by rising to these challenges, custodial single parents develop significant strengths. The positive benefits of being a single parent are that the child receives a lesson in independence. The child sees how strong the one parent is at providing them with everything they need without having to depend on someone else. The parents are showing their children that it is possible to live on their own, have an enjoyable life and take care of others while doing so. The children will know that they are a priority to the parent. When there is a second parent around the house, it can be easy to put responsibility off on them, but when the children see how hard the parent is working for them, they will understand how important they are to their parent. (Dowd, 1997)

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

In today’s society it is not unusual to have a one-parent family with a young mother in charge. Teen mothers having children has increased so much over the years that it’s now a common occurance. Being a young single mother in today’s society is challenging but with the help of government assistance single mothers are finding their way.

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.

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

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.

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.

“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?

Single moms face a challenge within their lives. Some mothers become single through divorce and while others become single outside of wedlock. However, there is no set age for a single mom. Statics states that most females become single moms before they finish high school and is receiving some type of government assistance for help. The average single mom has either dropped out of school or working a minimum paying job. Because of the high cost of living rate it is impossible for these single moms to provide a healthy life for their children. Therefore the Department of Human

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.

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

This paper will explore some of the many hardships single mothers face, while living in poverty. Single mothers as well as cohabiting couples, are referred as the fragile families (Ariel, Kalil, & Rebecca R. 2010). Mothers in fragile families make ends meet by turning to public programs that provide child care and benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance. Single mothers face economic challenges and hardships, however, the resources available allow them to meet these challenges in one way or another.

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)

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.