Single Parent Households

Raising children is a major job that takes time and patience. But imagine being a single parent, raising a child on your own. According to, Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2007, released by the U. S. Census Bureau in November 2009, there are approximately 13. 7 million single parents in the United States today ( that’s not including the individuals who didn’t participate). Those parents are responsible for raising 21. 8 million children (approximately 26% of children under 21 in the U.

S. today). Generally, I will illustrate the picture of the single-family and their corresponding struggles with daily life. Approximately 84% of custodial parents are mothers and 16% of custodial parents are fathers. Economic burdens are greater in the women household which results from the fact that the average single mother does not earn the same income as a single man. This economic struggle is not experienced in the single father household due to the balance of work and family duties women face.

You find most women working overtime to make up for the fact they have low salaries which takes time away from their children and daily chores to meet the needs of their kids. This results in either the child being left home alone without proper supervision, or placed in childcare eight to ten hours a day. Having trusted friends and family that can assist with childcare or transportation is a great asset when it comes to being a single parent.

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It is also the terrible price that parents pay to provide for their children when they have to work during those memorable moments of childhood. In addition, single parents struggle with time not only for their children but for themselves. In two parent households they struggle with managing time, so when the all the responsibility is solely on a single parent, the struggle can be suffocating. When you are working, going to school and caring for your child, you can find the task a little bit exhausting.

While each task seem just as important as the next, a child needs can’t be negotiated, which from experience I know it may get the best of your emotions. Losing sleep to make financial needs meet or studying may bring your mental and physical tolerance to a minimum. Stress, malnutrition, physical abuse and sleep deprivation sound like torture, but it’s the situation that most single parent face every day. Last but not least, the average single parent pushes forward to achieve their personal goals or careers because that’s all they have to call their own.

When achieving the balance of sacrifice and success that provides the best outcome for that child and its parent, can be a difficult path for anyone. This path challenges one decision and pushes the single parent to and emotional breakdown, which causes them to question, what may be best for not only them but the child. It’s a barrier that single parents face every day because their goals and careers take a back seat to the birth of their child. When that child is born, that child life is beginning and all your goals may be pushed off which makes them at times less important as before.

In conclusion, single parent households have overcoming barriers that make all the struggles and sacrifices worth it at the end. Despite the challenges and emotional highs and lows, the creation of a responsible human being is always worth the trouble. At the end, the bond between that parent and child will be inseparable because that child will never forget all the sacrifices and hard work you have put forth to make their life that much easier. I don’t think society see the struggles many single parent households face daily.

If we would help these parents out more than our society wouldn’t have to continuously point the finger to the boy who murdered and raped a young girl because he was a part of the single parent household statistic. So you wonder am I for or against the single parent household and my response to that is I have no choice, I live it every day. Everything I wrote was my lifestyle since I had my two year old son but never in a million years will I change it.

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