Single Parenting

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

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Patience, devotion, unconditional love, best friend, role model, and Super Hero/Heroine…What do these entire ingredients make mixed up together...a single parent. Single parenthood is an extremely challenging task to accomplish alone. You are the mother and father to your children.

Today in the United States, being raised by a single parent is not uncommon. Almost three in ten children live within a single parent home (Risman, 1988). The most common type of single parent home is usually only the mothers the parent. Single parents are more likely to include their children in day-to-day running of the family. Children of single parents may share more responsibility of chores and looking after themselves than other children of two parent homes. Single parents often discuss with their children that parents of two parent homes discuss with each other (e.g. the shopping list, what to do for the holidays).

In the United States, a large percentage of single mothers have children at a younger age than most married women.

More single mothers fail to graduate from high school and are unable to obtain a college education. Women, opposed to men have higher paid jobs with or without extended education. Some studiers conclude that women generally have lower paying jobs (Mulkey, 1992). My mother had me at the age of seventeen. My mother dropped out of school prior to my being conceived. I also had my first child at a young age of sixteen. My mother and I did not get along well as I was growing up. I have two younger brothers that are twins; there is three years difference in age. I was the mother to my brothers and also my mother. My mother was working a lot to support us, and I was the babysitter, housekeeper, cook, and homework helper all...