Single Parent Homework

Did you know that more than one fourth of all children in the United States live with only one parent? Single parenting has become more common today than in the 1800s, when it was sometimes frowned upon. As the years have gone by, it has become easier and easier for women to become single parents. In the 1800’s if husbands died or abandoned their families, women had no choice but to work for extremely low and unfair wages. Today, most men and women are treated equal and receive equal wages making it easier for women to be single parents. This concept is shown in Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer through Aunt Polly in the 19th century, single parenting is also common today.

Children born to single or unwed parents causes serious problems and discussions not only within society, but also the welfare system. Becoming a parent seems to be one of the most beautiful things life has to offer to people. The laughter of children warms the heart like nothing else can, and the way their eyes light up when they receive something as small as a piece of candy reminds us all that the little things in life are the most important. However, children require time and money which often gets overlooked by many people. Raising a child with two married parents seems difficult enough, but today many people are having children out-of -wedlock which also seems to create more single parent homes and puts more pressure on that one parent who struggles to support the child. From 1960 to 2000, out-of-wedlock births grew by 600%

Since the beginning of the 1960’s, marriage rates have decreased by over 30%, while divorce rates have doubled. This has led to triple the number of children that live with single parents.

Many children in today’s society have grown to become successful and mentally stable whether they had two parents, or one parent raise them. With everything in life it is never about quantity, but quality. This could apply to single parenting as well. As long as a parent create a stable and nurturing home their child will grow up to be a mature, hard working, independent, and loving adult. Family structure should not be the main focus when it comes to raising children, the focus should be on the values and life lessons that are taught to the child as they mature in life. Family structure in the last decade have change drastically. Children are being raised by same sex parents, grandparents, extended family, a single father, or a single

Fatherless homes in the black community is at 57.6% (NCF, 2017). One of many issues of a fatherless home is children have less structure and lack of discipline; i.e. Chicago. The children suffer the most. I believe children need both parents in the household to be complete (“not all”). I believe if women have father’s in their lives (a positive male figure at minimum) it could help their decision in choosing the right mate will help this issue.

Did you know 30% of children in the United States live in a single-parent household as of 2012? ( )Every year this number is on the rise and it is causing children everywhere to suffer. When children are raised in an environment with only one parent they can have less opportunities and less supervision than a child with two parents. Children should not be raised in single-parent households because it can lead to abuse from parents, violence in children and poverty.

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing are now epidemic in American society. Both forms of disrupted families are harmful to children and to society. The children of single parents are more likely to do poorly in school, commit crimes, and become single parents themselves. In addition, the increase in single-parent families contributes to such social problems as poverty, crime, and a decline in the quality of public education.

The effects of a fatherless single parent family home are numerous. Children raised in fatherless single parent family homes are prone to delinquency, are more likely to have confused identities (boys), they are also at greater risk to suicide, they tend to engage in greater and earlier sexual activity, they are disproportionately the victims of sexual abuse. They are more likely to be poor: have more health problems, have more trouble in school, are more likely to become teen parents, are more likely

All across the globe, there are children growing up in single-parent households, and through some research

According to a recent study from CBS, the United States has the highest divorce rate of any country at 45%. Due to this high rate of divorce, many families find that there is an imbalance of family roles in these newly created single parent households. Being a single parent has its own set of challenges for the individual and creates challenges for the family such as, spending smaller amounts of time with your children, having an excessive work load and disrupting the wellbeing of the children.

Single parents don’t necessarily raise their children alone; they can have support from family and friends. Single parents also tend to parent better, they are stricter with their decisions and their children respect their choices. When it comes to creating a healthy family, it's not about the number of parents, but the quality of parenting a child receives that is most important. A home is only "broken" when healthy family interactions break down, for example when people stop communicating adequately. In the situation where both parents are raising the child, but the family situation isn’t healthy it can do more harm on the child than good. Certain situations such as a violent household

The number of children born to unmarried mothers for the middle class has grown to forty-four percent and it used to be thirteen percent. The least educated Americans that have had children and are unmarried have grown from thirty-three percent to fifty-five percent. The highest educated has went from two percent to six. The numbers have grown because society has became more accepting of children being born outside of marriage- the media has a lot to do with that I think. I believe that it is better for children to be raised in a two-parent home; it provides stability for the child. Stability promotes growth for the child; for instance, these children are most likely to graduate from high school and also further their education beyond high school. Children raised with two parents in the same home have emotional security and

Families are changing very fast. The rates of children that are living with a first-time marriage household is decreasing quickly. According to Pew Research Center in 1960 there was seventy-three percent of two parents in first marriage and from then until 2014 the numbers decrease to forty-six percent of two parents in the first marriage. In 2014 there are fifteen percent of children living in a household with step parents, seven percent living with cohabiting parents, twenty-six percent single parents, and five percent with no parents. There is an increase decline in what a "traditional" family is. In a Census study, there is data that found that “over a three-year period, about three-in-ten (31%) children younger than 6 had experienced a major change in their family or household structure, in the form of parental divorce, separation, marriage, cohabitation or death.” Since there is complexity in these numbers it is alarming. This is showing that there are several families who did not think of the relationship before having kids. This research is basically telling Americans that there is no family structure that is still traditional. Parents need to put into consideration the time and energy it takes to have a kid. Success is possible if there is a parent that puts forth everything they have.

Children growing up in a single parent family know that marriage is not a fairy tale and is definitely not perfect or for that matter even close to being perfect.. They saw their mom or dad’s marriage fail and realized that marriage takes a lot of work, time, and dedication. Children in this situation also know that families have to work hard for the money that is necessary to take care of everyone’s needs. The facts are that most in a single-parent families live at or below poverty levels and they know that mom or dad can’t always buy them brand name clothing, the newest toy, the latest CD or the best video game console. They also know what it is “the real world”.

Single parent and divorced, shared-custody families have become more common place in American society over the past fifty years. During the 1940s and 1950s, “85% of children lived in two-parent families, 70% lived in an intact (biological or adoptive) two-parent family, and the remaining 15% lived in two-parent stepfamilies….. however, since the 1970s, there has been a large increase in the proportion of children living with never-married mothers (from 1.1% in 1970 to 6.7% in 1988) or divorced mothers (from 3.5% in 1970 to 7.8% in 1988)” (Shiono and Quinn par. 2). Since there has been an increase in divorced and never-married mothers taking care of families, there have been countless studies done on how different family structures affect the children involved and the family unit as a whole. I believe that the two biological parent family structure is the best for children and society because it provides stability, allows for stable financial income, and also prevents role strain for the parents.