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Welcome to Single Mother Resources
The
majority of single parents are single mothers. A single parent is a
parent who cares for children without the assistance of another person
in the home. Single parenthood occurs as the result of many things.
Sometimes it is by choice as in divorce, adoption, artificial
insemination, or extramarital pregnancy. Often it is unforeseen as
in the death of one parent or abandonment by one parent.
Single
parenting can be very challenging. Children of single parents are very
likely to share more household responsibilities, including looking
after themselves. Single parents often discuss things with their
children which, in other traditional two-parent families, are usually
discussed only between the parents. This can make the children from
these families more independent, mature, resourceful, and responsible
compared to their peers from traditional two-parent families.
Many
factors influence how children develop in single-parent families. The
parent's age, education level, and occupation affects the family's
income. The family's support network of friends and extended family
members, including the parent who does not reside in the home, if
available, also has a big influence on the development of the children.
Single Mothers
In the United States,
the number of single mothers continues to rise. The U.S. Census Bureau
reported in 2000 that one third of all children were being raised by a
single parent, and 80% of these were single mothers. Divorce accounts
for the majority of children being raised by single parents, but 40% of
all single mothers have never been married.
The stigma that was
generally attached to single mothers has eroded over the past few
years. Celebrities, whose choices to become single mothers have been
highly publicized, have played a great part in this change in society's
attitude toward single mothers. Also, more successful women who know
their own mind and know what they want and how to get it are becoming
single mothers.
Scientific and
medical advances and breakthroughs in reproductive technology have
given single women new, more palatable options in becoming pregnant.
The increase in quality sperm donors and more advanced techniques in
keeping donated sperm viable for longer periods of time give single
women a wider range of choices and a higher comfort level in choosing
artificial insemination. The technology of artificial insemination has
also advanced, increasing the likelihood that the woman will become
pregnant.
Adoption is also
becoming a viable alternative for women wishing to become single
mothers. Many adoption agencies have changed their policies on allowing
single-parent adoptions and will now consider financially stable single
women as suitable to be adoptive mothers.
Improved conditions
in the workplace also are giving more women the option to become single
mothers. Rather than the blatant discrimination against single mothers
that many employers practiced in the past, many employers now offer
on-site daycare, special rooms in which lactating mothers can express
breast milk, job-sharing programs and flexible work schedules to
accommodate mothers who work outside the home.
Single mothers do have their critics. There are sectors who feel that
women who have deliberately chosen to be single mothers are women who
have not had the time, opportunity or resources to attract a man with
whom they could raise a family. There is a strong following that
believe children of single mothers are at a disadvantage. The erosion
of the traditional family is a major issue in these sectors because
they feel that the children of single mothers turn out to have higher
incidences of out-of-wedlock births and divorce due to the influences
of growing up in a single parent family.
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