Parents Dating

When I was growing up, it was rare that you heard of single parent families.  In fact, I only remember one person whose parents were divorced when we were growing up. Most of the children I knew had both parents unless one parent had died suddenly.

Things have changed a lot since then.  I have several friends who are single parents, something that my parents say was rare to see when they were raising us.   It has been estimated that more than thirteen million parents are single in the U.S.A. today, and numbers are expected to increase. The majority (85%) of single parent families consist of a mom and her child(ren).  The remaining 15% would be dads and their children.

Sometimes, the mom has become unexpectedly pregnant and finds herself raising her children alone.  But most often, single parent families result when a marriage or partnership goes bad.  Surprisingly, only about 1% of single parents are due to a partner who dies.

Despite the single moms working full-time to provide for their children’s and family’s needs, it is estimated that about 33% of single moms are barely getting by.  They live below the poverty line.  Factors that play into this is that they may never have pursued a college or university degree, or may have been so busy raising their children that they exited the working force years earlier. As well, men still tend to make more than women for the same jobs.   Only about 10% of fathers, on the other hand, are below the poverty line.

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