Single Parenting

Concerns, Problems and Effects

Single parents are not a new phenomenon in today’s world. Widowed, divorced or unmarried; single mothers are more common than single fathers today. They face an uphill task in leading a life free of stress, a life of being accepted and life without facing struggles. Life can be quite stressful for children and adults in a single parent household. Society may unrealistically expect the family as a normal two-parent family and when they realize it is away from the realm of normal functioning, it may be difficult for them to accept the reality and accommodate such single parents.

The life of a single parent may be overwhelmed by responsibility. Taking care of the children, giving them time, maintaining a job, managing work and home responsibilities, keeping up with the bills and household chose are all a burden for a single parent. There is a significant effect on the family’s financial and economic burden. Apart from these, due to separation and family breakup, there are significant issues with regard to child custody, visits, effect of the parental conflict on the child, the loss of opportunities for parents and children to spend time together and bond, the effects on the child’s school or educational performance and other social effects, the disruptions in the family’s extended relationships and problems due to new relationships.

Some of the major concerns with regard to single parenting are the worries of providing for the family and also providing an adequate role model for the missing parent. Even though the joint family is dying out in our country, extended families still prove to be a source of support and help the child learn and model an adult. A single parent may be concerned with the child missing out on an important experience of his growing years but the truth is that children are very resilient and adaptive than adults. Finances of course are a source of anxiety for the single parent as there is no backup available but the reality again is that it is just the perception that single families don’t do well with a single source of income. In fact, being a single parent makes one financially independent and unanswerable to anyone in terms of the amount of money spent.