“Single Parents In Todays Society”

With America's current, long running recession showing no signs of slowing, it is more difficult than ever for single parents to afford the necessities for raising children. Our Department of Human Services programs are decreasing weekly. With inflation rising and the value of the dollar steadily dropping, childcare is almost impossible to afford and maintain. Food, clothes, medical care, and school supplies are also more expensive than ever. An increase rather than decrease in social services programs are more needed than ever just in order for a single parent to get by; let alone better themselves. I have personally struggled with these issues as a single parent. Just trying to secure childcare alone is extremely difficult. In my particular area childcare is lumped in with other benefits one may apply to receive. Part of the requirements for this service is to work or volunteer a certain amount of hours weekly which creates a paradox. You need the child care in order to secure a job and yet you need the job to secure childcare. Private care providers are so expensive that it ends up eating away a significant amount of your wages and making it difficult to cover the general expenses such as rent and utilities. I believe as a society we can find better solutions in the way our programs are set up and the prerequisites to qualify for such programs. I’ve personally witnessed people that were fortunate enough to have family backing and help achieve impressive levels of

success and those not so fortunate struggle to meet even the bare necessities. There are times this endeavor seems all but hopeless. Thankfully there are some empathetic people out there. Although it is unfortunate that these people are few and far between and a lot of times just simply lack the personal insight into the situation to garner any significant change. Also the stigma people are made to endure at the hands of those more well off is hurtful and impedes the progress of those struggling to move ahead in their lives. As a child I believed I would marry a wonderful person and live happily ever after. The lives of those I witnessed growing up seemed for the most part to be fairly content. I don’t recall seeing these kinds of struggles in the lives of my parents generation; at least not to the drastic point of things my own generation must endure. It does not seem to me that we were prepared for a society in shambles and the indifference we would have to face from others. I do not believe that I necessarily did anything wrong to cause many of the issues I must now face. By trusting someone that I loved and fully intended to marry I ended up putting myself in a station in life that is very challenging to deal with and try and move away from. I do realize I made a few uninformed and naive choices as a very young woman, but these happening are common for those that come from a working class or even more difficult socioeconomic background. While my mother worked I mainly relied on television to gain my understanding of the world. When the characters in my favorite TV shows were married and went about their lives in a happy and comical existence, it seemed very believable to me at the time. Also, when there happened to be a person dealing with a situation such as a marriage or relationship not working out and there were children involved, everything always seemed to work out OK. Or when there

was a glitch on the way to smooth sailing, the shows always seemed to conclude with a happy ending. Psychologist H. Rudolph Schaffer puts forth the assumption that at a young age “a major break in the relationship between parent and child can cause considerable trauma” to the child. The opinions vary on this, although the statistics support that having at least one “stay home” parent can significantly change the outcome of a persons life. When as a country we valued making the mother available “full