The Effects of Single Parenting on the Family Single parenting has been a part of me throughout my entire life. Being raised in a single parent home, my mother struggled to support her four children. Today, I also am a single parent experiencing many of the same stressors my mother had to endure. While observing my mother juggle the time she spent working, mentoring her children, and participating in church activities, I had no idea of the complexity of her daily struggles. Now that I am experiencing the same situation, I recognize that much research has been completed on the issue of single parenting and its effects on the family. Many researchers, based on statistical data, believe that children born in two-parent homes have …show more content…
(Kirby) According to Jack and Judith Balswick, "the second greatest problem encountered by single parents is the lack of time to juggle work, parenting, household tasks, and a personal life" (315). Even parents with superb time management skills may find it difficult to manage the tasks of parenthood without assistance. Elizabeth S. Greywolf, Project Coordinator of the Stress and Family Project of Harvard University, describes it as a circus juggler who has worked diligently to perfect her act of juggling six green and blue balls in the air, along with various vegetables and two flaming sticks. The juggler managed to accomplish her goal, and she performed three times a night. Then one day she was approached by her boss, the Ringmaster, and he told her that he wanted her to add three more flaming sticks, a watermelon, and a live puppy to the list that already existed. He also wanted her to perform five times a night instead of three starting the next day (15). Do you think the juggler was able to accomplish such a difficult task? Actually the story doesn't say, but it gives a glimpse of how single parents feel the very moment of entering into single parenthood and daily thereafter. Another problem is the decline or lack of assistance from the noncustodial parent (Balswick 315). Although most
All across the globe, there are children growing up in single-parent households, and through some research
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.
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
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.
Did you know 30% of children in the United States live in a single-parent household as of 2012? ( )Every year this number is on the rise and it is causing children everywhere to suffer. When children are raised in an environment with only one parent they can have less opportunities and less supervision than a child with two parents. Children should not be raised in single-parent households because it can lead to abuse from parents, violence in children and poverty.
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.
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
For as long as human families have existed, the core family group of a father, mother, and the children has been the ideal composition in what could be considered a balanced and fulfilling functional family. There had been many studies of the effects of having certain members of these groups on the family household present and absent. While there are many hypothesis of the effects of the children in the family in household with a missing parent, most of them are indeed negative and there had been studies that these can vary in many different aspects of a child’s upbringing. These effects will be discussed and functionality of the household family itself will be discussed to look at the issues
The journal article is talking about the difficulties which the single-parent families facing, such as emotional problems, housing stress and financial stress. It generated different viewpoints from different literature, and suggested an approach to meet the needs of single-parents.
Single parenthood is becoming an epidemic. According to Mullis & Mullis one in five families with children under the age of five is a one-parent family (Mullis & Mullis, 2013). With the rise of single parent households it is essential that families are equipped with the proper tools to navigate single parenthood. My goal for my parent education program involves equipping single parent families with the tools necessary to raise competent adults.
The cause of behavioral and/or emotional problems among our youth could come from being raised in a single parent home. Many children resort to negative acts of behavior because of limited parental supervision within the single parent household. Children are two to three times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems in single parent homes (Maginnis, 1997).
Many children in today’s society have grown to become successful and mentally stable whether they had two parents, or one parent raise them. With everything in life it is never about quantity, but quality. This could apply to single parenting as well. As long as a parent create a stable and nurturing home their child will grow up to be a mature, hard working, independent, and loving adult. Family structure should not be the main focus when it comes to raising children, the focus should be on the values and life lessons that are taught to the child as they mature in life. Family structure in the last decade have change drastically. Children are being raised by same sex parents, grandparents, extended family, a single father, or a single
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.
Married couples make up 68% of all families with children under 18, compared to 93% in 1950 (US 2015 Census). This demonstrates that more and more children are living in households with single parents. Single parents have to deal with jobs and other sources of stress making it difficult to give their children the attention they need. Additionally, single parents are the only ones that are providing for the family so they have a lot on their plate. This can provide stress on the child because they can feel unloved or even hated. As the rate of single parents go up, so does the amount of children that are not receiving enough