As time progress especially over the last twenty five years being single and in parenthood have become a more common factor in society.

As time has advanced, single parents trying to raise a family are being aided by more and more setups. Single parenthood is brought by mainly 3 things:

• Divorce
• Death of a spouse
• Teenage pregnancy

Having a child outside a matrimonial relationship is common but it does not change the real parental status as the statistics behind it.

Surveys that have been taken over the last 2 decades have shown that single parent families have nearly doubled. The US census has estimated that nearly 59% of children living in America will as one stage live alone with a single parent. There are currently twelve million single parents who are raising kids in America. A figure of about 20 million of children who are under 18 live with either a single mom or dad. 84 percent of those who live alone live with their mother.

The families that are headed by a single women are more vulnerable, this is because of a number of reasons. The main one being that the woman’s social position in society is still weaker than that of the men. Not only do single mothers have to deal with the gender based limitations of gaining employment but also have to cope with a demanding family. This can cause a lot of pressure if she is provided with no support from external sources.

Although 53.3 percent of single mothers in the U.S. are in the labor force, 3.9 million or 28 percent of households with a female single parent are in poverty compared to just 5.5 percent of two-parent families. This is due to the fact that the median family income for U.S. female single parents is $25,500 which is about half the average income of all families and less than half of the income of married coupled families. Adjusting for inflation, it is even less than the median family income of married coupled families in 1969 ($39,800).

Putting this into comparison, just over 13 percent of households run by single fathers are in poverty. This is far less than that of single mothers but it still nearly twice the poverty rate of married couple families. Although more plans are being put in place to help the single parent it is still hard to earn enough income to provide properly for all their family needs.

There had been policy proposals that were put in place for single parents to receive social benefits but these have been controversial. According to liberal individualist, if people choose to have children, they are responsible to look after them. The collectivist position which dominates continental Europe holds that children are other people’s business as well. This position also believes that the interest of the children is far greater than any concerns about the morality of the parents.

With people always looking for ways to cut money they often forget about the child’s needs. And I’m not talking about the parent here. Being a single parent more financial support should be provided. Making sure a child grows up with the most care should always come first. Aside from these economic realities, single parents also have to face the reality that children who live with single parents or even with a parent and step-parent, experience disadvantages in terms of psychological functioning, behavioral problems, education, and health.

Children with single parents are one and a half times likely to drop out of school and work in their early teens and twenties than children who grew up with two parents. Children with single parents are also twice as likely to have a child before the age of 20 as those raised in two-parent family. Many psychologists and child development workers argue however that these studies are oversimplified and outdated. Many factors are involved in the psychological development of a child raised in a single parent home. Cooperation between divorced parents and quality of attention given to the child are examples.

No child in a single parent family is by default doomed for a maladjusted life. Single parents must model self-respect and self-nurturing to the children and establish a support system for the family. Over the years surveys have shown that children who have single parents tend to do less well in academic studies and will receive less intellectual simulation than child who live with parents that are married.

However, studies in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University indicate that having a support system like a grandparent in the home, appears to buffer some of these negative effects. Children who live with a single parent and a grandparent fare just as well academically as children living with married parents. These findings contradict the idea that living with two married parents is the only situation in which children can thrive.

Having a support network of family and friends will always make single parenthood a much easier task. If you are not lucky to have this do not let it get you down. Remain positive and always remember there are people out there who are willing to provide advice and lend you a helping hand. Single parents who are raising families deserve our respect and should be helped out in anyway possible.