Single Mothers By Katie Roiphe Essay

Bill McKibben writes his essay, “The Case for Single-Child Families,” in a professional, educated way using figurative language to get his point across. Throughout McKibben’s essay, he uses the appeal of pathos and logos to seek the approval of his adult readers over his vasectomy. In his essay, he uses figurative language to allow his readers to get a better understanding how strongly he feels about having a single child family. McKibben writes his essay to persuade the reader to have fewer children, to be selfish, and to enjoy their child-less time. He wants his readers to explore and not worry whether they’ll be hurt by a “stray Lego left in the tub.”

About four in every ten children born in America in 2008 were born outside of marriage, and they are disproportionately minority and poor. “Only about 6 percent of college-educated mothers’ births are nonmarital versus 60 percent of those of high school dropouts” (5). Scholars responded to this by studying single-parent families.

“With what price we pay for the glory of motherhood” (Isadora Duncan). In Defense of Single Motherhood, by Katie Roiphe, is an essay arguing why being a single mother is better than the traditional two parent method. Although Rophie has a moderate expression of ethos, her poor use of logos, and her struggle with pathos concludes this is a weak argument.

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

As time progresses, family structures are rapidly shifting. In 2007, unmarried parents produced 40% of US children. This was over twice the 18 percent in 1980 and about eight times greater than the 5% in 1960 (Waldfogel, Craigie, Brooks-Gunn, 2).  In a study of 5000 children in many large cities, 3,700 of them were born to unmarried mothers. According to Waldfogel, Craigie, and Brooks-Gunn, such familiar conditions are dangerous because of the way that single mothers and unmarried parents tend to have less stable lives and relationships

Thesis/Central Idea: To understand that there are many parents raising their children alone with no help at all. Many single parents have different circumstances that cause them to raise their children by themselves. Being a single parent is not easy there are good days and bad days and most single parents must make it through no matter what. Many single parents do not realize that their children are looking at them for the rest of their lives.

There is much debate on what constitutes as a family today. However, Ball (2002) states, “The concept of the traditional family…is not an immutable one. It is a social construct that varies from culture to culture and, over time, the definition changes within a culture” (pp. 68). There is a growing diversity of families today including the commonality of sole-parenting. In order to explore aspects of sole-parenthood objectively, I need to reflect and put aside my personal experience of growing up in sole-parent household. Furthermore, this essay will explore the historical origins, cultural aspects discussing the influences and implications of gender identity, and social structures of sole-parent families, as well as consider the

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing are now epidemic in American society. Both forms of disrupted families are harmful to children and to society. The children of single parents are more likely to do poorly in school, commit crimes, and become single parents themselves. In addition, the increase in single-parent families contributes to such social problems as poverty, crime, and a decline in the quality of public education.

One thing in my life that I had to dive into doing was being a single parent. I no longer had just myself to worry about and to take care of; I was going to have another person to be responsible for. I had a mixture of feelings when I found out I was pregnant. I did not know if his dad was going to be around or not to help me. I was worried, nervous, scared and excited all at the same time.

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)

According to a recent study from CBS, the United States has the highest divorce rate of any country at 45%. Due to this high rate of divorce, many families find that there is an imbalance of family roles in these newly created single parent households. Being a single parent has its own set of challenges for the individual and creates challenges for the family such as, spending smaller amounts of time with your children, having an excessive work load and disrupting the wellbeing of the children.

Are you a single mother either by choice or by chance? When it get to the aspect of managing your finance, it can be really be difficult despite how you came to be a single mother. You have more to do other than taking care of your child or children, you have to take the responsibility of keeping your household running very well and also paying for all the expenses. Even if you get lucky as a single mother to get a child support or alimony you might still end up having problems with meeting up. Here are some important tips you need to become financial free as a single mother:

Kimberly Gaskin a single mother of four, works 40,000 dollars annually, she lives in a rental apartment. She pays the car note, insurance along with other debts. Nevertheless, she was finding it hard to provide food for the kids so she decided to apply for The Supplemental Nutritional Program(SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. This is a federal program that provides benefits you can use to buy food to supplement your grocery budget. However, she was declined the privilege of obtaining it because she was told her income is above the poverty line and is not qualified for such program. Every year hundreds of people are granted SNAP under false pretenses, they lie and fabricate documents to be eligible; while honest hard working people who really need the help are being denied. This is an everyday problem in society. There are different techniques that can be taken to change the process of being qualified for SNAP to help people escape generational poverty, these include; doing random drug tests, programs should be offered to help better themselves and the assistance should be granted for a certain about of time for able-bodied people.

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.