Single Parents

As I start this post, I don't want it to be taken as "oh poor me". I've been blog-hopping and with all the Father's Day tributes I started thinking (and we all know that can be dangerous!)...

I started doing some research and found this:
(From: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/families_households/009842.html)

According to Families and Living Arrangements: 2006, there were 12.9 million one-parent families in 2006 — 10.4 million single-mother families and 2.5 million single-father families.
Just over two-thirds (67 percent) of the nation’s 73.7 million children younger than 18 lived with two married parents in 2006. Also in 2006, there were an estimated 5.8 million stay-at-home parents: 5.6 million mothers and 159,000 fathers.

Other highlights:

• Average household size in 2006 was 2.57 people, down from 3.14 in 1970.
• Slightly more than one in four households (26 percent) consisted of a person living alone in 2006, up from 17 percent in 1970.
• About 5.7 million children, or 8 percent of the total, lived in a household that included a grandparent in 2006. The majority of these children (3.7 million) lived in the grandparent’s home, and of these, about 60 percent had a parent present.
• Among the 13 million children 15 to 17, about 2.3 million were working, and of these, 2.2 million worked part time.
• In 2006, 33 percent of males and 26 percent of females 15 and older had never married, up from 28 and 22 percent in 1970.
• The majority of men and women in 2006 had been married by the time they were 30 to 34 (71 percent), and among men and women 65 and older, 96 percent had been married.
  (Data are from the 2006 Current Population Survey’s (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), conducted in February, March and April at about 100,000 addresses nationwide.-X- Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling
  error. For more information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates, including standard errors and confidence intervals, go to Appendix G of <http://www.census.gov/apsd/techdoc/cps/cpsmar06.pdf>. )

I also wanted to point out that a single parent has twice the responsibility in the home. A single parent has to do both the normal "Mom" things and the normal "Dad" things.

A lot of single parents also have two or more jobs. A single parent is trying to raise a child on one income (plus child support-which is another post topic altogether). So not only does he/she have more responsibility AT home, he/she has more responsibility AWAY from home too. AND he/she has to hire a babysitter for the hours that he/she has to work rather than being able to schedule hours at a second job when the child is with their spouse.

AND then he/she is SINGLE so there is the whole dating social/life that he/she dreams of having. Yeah right! Who has the time or energy for that?!?!

AND friendships... THANK GOODNESS FOR COMPUTERS if it wasn't for blogging and e-mails this single mom would have no chance to connect with any of her friends. I can't afford to call them on the phone, and who has the time to do that anyway? At least with the computer we can do it when it is convenient for each of us, and we don't have to both be available at the same time.

I guess my point to this whole thing is- be thankful for what you have! There are a lot of people out there that are struggling just to "make it". Those of you who are lucky enough to be in a happy marriage, please put in the time and effort to keep it that way. You and your kids deserve it!

As a single parent, I'm lucky. My family lives next door, and they help me out a ton! They give me a much needed break now and then (like to use the computer), and I wouldn't keep my sanity some days without them. Thanks!!