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Essay on Single Parent Families
Single-parent families in today's society have their share of daily struggles and long-term disadvantages. The issues of expensive day care, shortage of quality time with children, balance of work and home duties, and economic struggle are among the seemingly endless problems these families must solve. As many single-parent households are female-headed, their economic burden is much greater than that of a single-father family.
This issue results from the fact that single women typically do not earn the same income as a single man; thus, there is a consequent economic struggle not experienced in the single-father household. An offshoot of this economic struggle is the balance of work and family duties. Single mothers often must work overtime shifts to compensate for the low salaries, thus taking time away from their children and other domestic chores. This results in a child that is home alone, without adult supervision, or placed in a daycare service for up to 8-10 hours per day. Government subsidized daycare is not yet a realized dream, and many single mothers pay large fees for this service.
By most objective measurements, the vast majority of mother-headed families hold a disadvantageous position in society relative to other family groups. They are characterized by a high rate of poverty, relatively low education, and a high rate of mobility. As a group, they have little equity or stature in American society and constitute a group with unusually pressing social and economic needs (Bogenschneider et al 1993).
After divorce, income tends to drop sharply for mothers, to about one-third that of married-couple families. Child support is an unreliable source of income, as only about one-half of the fathers ordered to pay support actually pay in full. Children in single-parent families are twice as likely to drop out of high school as children living full time in two-parent families......
