Solo Parenting – modern day dilemma, compulsion or fashion?
Parenting in today’s complex world, is more complicated than the present senior generation (people born before 1960) could ever imagine. Till about 50 years back, parenting was never looked at as an issue requiring any special skills – children just grew up without so much fuss, and in the company of their cousins as part of the large/ joint family system. Both parents were, most of the times, available to their children – except those few who were in frequent transferrable jobs.
However, in the present scenario, we have a wide range of variations of a family. The joint family system has almost disappeared, and lately even the nuclear family is in a transition phase - showing all signs
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The child should always feel loved, wanted, secured at all times, and be permitted to form healthy relationship with peers. The child’s mind need not be poisoned with bitterness, anger, hatred or cynicism about the other parent, or life in general, because of one’s own insecurities and unresolved feelings. The child should be encouraged to take responsibilities for such things that he/ she is able to do independently, besides being involved in small household chores.
In the end, being a single parent may feel like a difficult journey to start with but acceptance, patience and emotional strength can turn it out to be a joyful adventure that could redefine his/ her life and that of the children.
Perhaps, in another 20 years or so, many successful people and community leaders of that period are expected to be from single-parent families. Going by such trends, we - as compassionate people with some wisdom - need to be concerned now, and look at if that generation children would grow up to be fully-functional individuals, or would they be vulnerable and emotionally less resilient?
What kind of parenting style would they be opting for, or what all life-options will they have to choose from, to finally arrive at decisions best suited to them under those prevailing
Although the ideal family has two working parents, a lot of families in America are what’s called single parent homes. If one parent is in charge of one or two or three children, what are they supposed to do when they go to work? The child is then forced to grow up before he/ she is ready.
Because of these strict beliefs, cultural norms birth rates were down considerably compared to today, for many women wanted to await child birth; until they were financial secure or stable. Additionally, “we never read (or heard) about family violence and almost nothing about singlehood, cohabitation, stepfamilies, or one parent families” (Jones, ASID, IIDA, IDEC and Phyllis Sloan Allen, 2009, p. 74). However, in the 1970’s people began to expand their horizon’s, and soon ventured out to explore other cultures; causing challenges towards the social movement on their views of a traditional family structure. This is why, “since the 1970’s three of the major shifts have occurred in family structure, gender roles, and economic concerns” (Jones, ASID, IIDA, IDEC and Phyllis Sloan Allen, 2009, p. 74).
Single motherhood calls for a great balance to be struck – between parenting, earning a livelihood and finding little time to spend on yourself. Everything that must be done starts with your own hands – cooking, washing, cleaning, taking care of children and keeping house. But today, as divorce rates increase, more and women are becoming single parents – empowered, strong and able to manage on their own.
A single parent have to take all the responsibility to raise children. They have to work hard in order to get enough money for the whole family. It is truly stressful for these families. The kind of family type is unstable as a result of divorce of coupled parents and the death of parents. The women who get pregnant by accident can also become single parents.
There’s no typical family as nuclear families as in the past and not everyone lives in a multigenerational household. Same-sex families are also on the rise as sexual ambiguity is undergoing its own wave of acceptance in all political, social, and economic spheres. With the absence of the parents’ presence in the home due to an inability effectively balance work and home life, children could develop an emotional void/absence. Good communicative dialogue between children and their parents where the adults describe their work situation as it relates to the home to create resilient children, could possibly benefit the household.
A child who is unsafe or has been neglected has a physically smaller brain and fewer brain connections ‘to develop the brain, pathways need to be made, connections made over and over so the baby can remember and learn otherwise these pathways are lost’ than a child who is safe. ‘Babies brains are making connections at a rapid pace’, when a child feels safe and is happy they are more able to participate and learn from their play, interactions, and daily routines. A child’s relationships affect all areas and stages of their development. The experiences they have in their younger years will shape them for the rest of their life.
Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior Child upbringing has always been a topic of conflict. Especially in the late-modern society where terms such as ‘curling children’ and ‘helicopter parents’ are often used in the media, to describe overly spoiled children and parents who are overly protective towards their children. There are loads of discussions about if one should hover over their children to ensure their physical and mental wellbeing while having gotten too soft when it comes to standing one’s ground regarding possible consequences, or if children should have a stricter upbringing with less say in any matter. Chinese Amy Chua, who is resided in America where she is a professor at Yale Law School, discusses this subject in her article “Why
One criterion that makes an excellent parent is that they give their children advice that is useful including but not limited to their current difficulties. The parent can give the help that the child needs but doesn’t solve the problem, allowing the child to deal with his or her own situation with the help and advice of their parents. The child can use that advice and use it for different situations and tolerate it. Another criterion that makes a satisfactory parent is that they treat their children equally and doesn’t favor one child over another because of their differences. The children will also learn to treat other people equally like how their parent did.
Becoming a Single Mother Becoming a single mother was one of the hardest things to do in my life. I was only nineteen years old and new to the world. I had just gotten out of a five year relationship when I met this guy on social media, a few weeks later we finally met in person. Fast-forward about four months later, I was still working as a manager at one of our local fast food restaurants and just wasn’t feeling the greatest. One of the employees suggested that I could be pregnant, I didn’t think that it was possible since I did my part and was on the Pill, and still currently taking it.
Topic: Single Parent Adoption Specific purpose: To persuade the audience that a single person is fully capable of raising a child on their own and therefore should take the legal right of adoption too. Introduction: Why would a single man or women give up on their freedom and decide to raise a child? Cherishing and sharing life as a family, is a worldwide need that any individual at a certain age would like to accomplish.
American Families Today The American family has undergone many changes since the 1900’s. More so, in the past 40 years, the nuclear family seen dramatic changes and has been described as deteriorating. There has been a dramatic rise in divorce, single parent households and child poverty. Studies have shown that children growing up in poverty-stricken single parent households are more likely to be affected well into adulthood. While this is the case, people are also living longer, and families are accommodating this change by living with relatives allowing for more bonding time then in previous generations.
Family members may or may not be biologically related, share the same household, or be legally recognized” (Raney, 2015:6). In the series Modern family, it shows the dynamics of a 21st century family and how traditions and culture has evolved over the years. As opposed to “nuclear family” “No longer does the traditional family consist of two parents and two children; instead, more diverse and shifting family structures are becoming the norm.
It can be inferred that when a single parent takes on a child, they think of any given situation that life might throw their way and prepare and plan for the worst so the kid does not end up back in Foster Care. an article even states “What prospective single parents do need, however, is a lot of self-reflection. Because it’s hard to raise a child alone, prospective parents should take stock of several key issues, including finances, lifestyle and support. Ms. Hochman offers these questions to consider, especially for singles, before plunging into the adoption process” (Adoption and the single guy, Lisa Beach). This evidence shows that when adopting singles are questioned and checked to make sure they are fit to care for a child.
Fatherless America was written by David Blankenhorn. The state of the nation with families without fathers is surely becoming the norm. This article goes into detail about the research Mr. Blakenhorn, conducted to come to the conclusion that people who were born in the 1970’s are now have grown up to have households without fathers. As a result of fatherless homes, children are not helping the current society. The article also discusses the imagine of what fatherhood should be and how it has changed over the years.
The spread of narcissism in the United States is becoming an unruly problem. Narcissistic traits in individuals include entitlement and the overall belief that one’s self is better than they are in actuality. Authors Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell address these issues in The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. Some key contributors to the growing amount of narcissism in western culture are parenting, attention seeking on social media, and antisocial behavior (especially online).