The Consequences Of Single Motherhood
In times back, a family used to constitute of two parents that is, father and mother, singleness of any of the parent could only arise due to death of one of the parents. Nowadays, things have changed and single parenthood is on the rise as it has become a norm and the society respects that. Single motherhood is where a woman is responsible of taking care of children that either she has given birth to or has adopted. This comes with having to play the role of both parents in the house in order to bring up complete children who are socially, emotionally, physically and mentally healthy and acceptable by the society (Ruth, pp 34).
Causes of Single Mother Families
The singleness comes due to several factors; death of the other partner, by choice, divorce, separation and unwanted pregnancies. Today so many women are opting to become single mothers by choice. This has been mainly attributed by the fact that today’s woman is learned and is a working woman. Some of them find themselves, having gone so much academically that by the time they are thinking of settling down to have their own families, time is barred for them i.e. the biological clock is long gone, so they find that the only option to go by is to adopt a child and thus getting into single motherhood. Single motherhood by choice is mainly for those women who feel that they have got much to give to a child and has both financial and emotional resources to support both herself and the child( Single mothers by choice, 2009).
Single motherhood comes by choice when one decides to either have or adopt a child knowing well that she will be her child’s only parent. For career women, its their biological clock’s ticking that may make them go for the single motherhood as they can no longer wait to be married in order for them to get families. Thus they end up going for donor insemination, or adopting children or even to some they get pregnant accidentally.
Most women would love to raise up children with the presence of both parents that is, with a partner but nature happens not to favor them when it comes to the child bearing years( single mothers by choice, 2009).
Challenges Faced By Their Children.
As much as parents may choose to become single, the children that they are choosing to bring up in single hood are the bearer’s of the whole burden; they suffer the consequences of ‘poor’ choices of their parents. Its ironical that this women do not know what they are putting their children into. The children in such family set up a suffer the ridicule of lacking a father, from their peers who come from families with a father and a mother. They thus feel out of place and keep nagging the mother over the absence of a “loving dad” this sets the mother also to the challenge, of trying to mend the hole of loneliness in the children due to the absence of one parent. Children who are raised by single mother tend to have more disciplinary problems, and thus to sum up this is that the more a home is stable, the stronger the marriage and thus the student from such a home will be good in everything. Children especially girls have that special love to their fathers and when a home has a missing dad they may develop problems in coping with their male counterparts this may also lead to future problems of choosing their marriage partners as they have not grown with a man in their life with whom to make a comparison(Ronald, 1993).
Challenges of Single Women
Being a single mother life can be hard at times, as you are supposed to provide fully for your child’s by making sure that food is on the table every other day and been a roof to your child. You need to straighten your child’s behavior, pay for their school fees, meet the expenses of birth days, do their laundry as well as taking them to the doctor once in a while. It therefore means that you are supposed to play the role of two parents. In single motherhood a lot of support is required by this single parents as they have a lot of things to do. Foristance, when they work, their children think that they do not have enough time to spend with them, whereas if they do not work, their children will not get what they require.
So in both cases a single mother requires more than just help as psychologically she may feel that she is not giving enough of what she would have wanted to give to her children in life. In single motherhood, you have to guide, take care of your children’s need and protect them as you are the rock of the family. You have to play the role of both the father and the mother an take care of the emotional needs of your children. This will require a lot of sacrifice on the mother more if she is working (Sarah, 1994).
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