Experiences of Growing up in a Single-parent Family vs. a Dual-parent Family - Essay Example

Usually when a child is brought up by a mother alone then he tends to be a person with weaker self-confidence or sense of security. A child remains deprived of the feeling that he is protected. While if a child is brought up by his father alone then the child lacks sensitivity, he will always have a bit of a more strong stance to things. He will probably lack the feelings of humanity even; he might have a very hard and stiff demeanor and outlook to life. His only focus most probably would be high aspirations and more focus would be on material things and success.

Therefore, to create a proper balance in the life of a child it is necessary for a child to have his father and as well as his mother to support him throughout his life. It is generally assumed that children living with single parents have a more bolder and mature outlook to life, while the ones living with both the parents usually are the ones who have a milder perspective to life and look at things with a bit more innocence. I wanted to gain an insight as to fact that people since time beyond have emphasized, that both parents are necessary for the child to grow as healthy, normal and a productive person.

It has been seen that single mothers have been looked down upon by the society despite the fact that they work so hard to bring up their children. I had designed a single questionnaire which I utilized for all participants. There are a total of 6 participants and each of them were given ample time to think and respond. This way also any bias that might come up was reduced as people had no time pressure. I had designed the questionnaire in a very simple way, it had ten questions. In the first question it was asked whether the child lives in a single family or a dual parent family.

The responses were mixed; my sample contained a better of international students I felt it might influence the answers I had. Four out of the six respondents had grown up in the dual family outfit. This means that they had both of their parents with them when they were growing. When I asked, “Whether they believed that for a child to grow up in dual family the presence of both the parents was necessary, 5 out of six respondents said, that if the child didn’t have both the parents to tuck him in bed then he is not considered to be living in a dual parent family.

Kenny said, “Parents can live apart and even then raise their child as a child belonging to a dual parent family”. Laki, who had grown up in a single parent family like Kenny also said, “if the both the parents are not living together then the child does not belong to dual parent family”. I then asked, “When a child lives in single parent family, he then gets to spend some fun time with both the parents separately?”, the respondents were asked what do they think of this arrangement, Noi and others said, “They feel that child will not label that time as the quality time, and will have quite a lot of issues with adjustments.

” Kenny, who himself is from a single family very explicitly said; “Such a child will be very confused and prone to have mood tantrums more often than the normal kids. The child will be divided and there will always be an aura of confusion about him”. When I asked who they felt would be the most suitable choice as a parent of the single family for the child?, amazingly except Kenny, who felt that whichever parent “qualifies” more to keep the child he or she should keep it. The rest all believed that a mother is more understanding and caring, therefore the child should stay with the mother.

Xi Sun said, “