Single Mums

Single Mums

Unmarried, divorced, or widowed women who bring up children independently are known as single mums. Over time the number of children raised by single women has significantly increased. Statistics have confirmed that single women head 80 % of American families, with one-third of the families living in absolute poverty (Schein and Virginia, 2018).

Berryhill and Durtschi (2018) explain that there are various challenges that single women experience in life, and therefore everyone should understand them. Most societies have harsh judgments and negative attitudes toward single women. The community views single mums as failures without getting background information on how single parenthood came along. With the father’s absence, the mother finds it hard to make decisions about the children. As a result, these women doubt their ability to bring up kids single-handedly. This challenge becomes even more complicated when the children’s father is alive but physically absent and thinks the children are raised inappropriately. Due to the burden of bringing up children, single women rarely sleep because the house chores can only be done when kids sleep. Inadequate sleep is a health hazard and can result in adverse health effects. Therefore, single women should be made aware that enough sleep is healthy.

Since single women were once in love, got married, bore children, and separated from the men by either death or divorce makes it hard for them to fall in love and trust new partners. With the presence of children, single women put the children’s welfare as a priority before engaging in a relationship. At the same time, the full concentration on the kid’s well-being makes the mothers forget about their well-being. Single mums should be encouraged to engage in exercises to keep away diseases and relieve psychological problems..

Although children bring about significant happiness, psychological problems result from money issues where public assistance towards bringing up children is minimal. Although some mums have full-time jobs, the salaries paid do not meet the family’s necessities, which cause emotional stress. Eventually, stress becomes a major cause of depression and fear in the future. To most women, the aftermath of separation and divorce drains them emotionally. The reality of raising kids alone and having to deal with conflicts from the ex-husband breaching the support of the kid’s agreements is a problem enough. When separation happens, friends tend to drift away from single women, which results in hopelessness and feeling sidelined. Family members must offer financial and emotional support to the mums.

In cases where the kids have special needs, single mums tend to give their all and dedicate their life to raise the kids. Performing the duties single-handedly is overwhelming and may result in mental illnesses. This results from the many responsibilities in the house with minimal help from family and friends. Some of the single mums left the marriage because of violence and abuse. Therefore, organizations have come up to help the mums with tips of survival and counseling as a way of avoiding mental trauma eventually.

References

Schein, Virginia. Working from the margins: Voices of mothers in poverty. Cornell University Press, 2018.

Berryhill, M. B., & Durtschi, J. A. (2017). Understanding single mothers’ parenting stress trajectories. Marriage & Family Review, 53(3), 227-245.