The Problem of Single-Parent Homes - Essay Example

First and foremost is the lack of a constantly present adult figure in the child's life. While single parents may be more dedicated towards their children, the fact of the matter is that they spend far less time with them. This may be due to the fact that they pick up extra shifts to earn money or because they have long hours at work to begin with. In normal two-parent households, the likelihood is that one parent is always present at home for the child, whenever he or she may need them. A child in a single parent house might be used to not seeing their parent for hours at a stretch, and thus get used to living alone, which in turn instills in them a feeling of loneliness or solitude, which they might find difficult to break out of as adults.

Secondly, the economic effects of being a single parent also have an effect on the child although they might not directly realize it. When a parent is the sole bread-earner, it is unlikely that they'll be able to provide for their family what two bread-earners would, unless they have a particularly high paying job. Also, as money is cut from the budget for a caretaker and other substitutes where normally the other parent would come into play, the budget further shrinks. In fact in most cases, the parent is the mother, who in most cases are lower qualified or else do not have the career experience that a male head of household would have, meaning they have lower paying jobs.

This means they do not provide the education or level of living that two parents, or in most cases, a better paying job would provide (Porterfield, 2001). Furthermore, it is likely that at some point or the other, the parent will remarry or else engage in a relationship with someone, be it long term or not. This has a significant impact on the child, who might feel their parent is being taken away from them, or that they will now have less time with them. Already having dealt with the loss or absence of one parent, this might scare them or induce in them a trauma of it happening again.

Furthermore, children who knew the parent they no longer live with might also have mixed feelings of confusion or guilt if they feel that the parent is being replaced by another (McLanahan and Sandefur, 1995). In some rare cases, the new figure in their life might also be a source of abuse or negative conflict, and some children that are too young to tell their parent might face life-long damage. In addition to this, a logical factor to consider is that a single-Parent on their own might not have the same mental state of contentment that a parent in a happy, healthy relationship might have, which in turn would naturally have an effect on the child.

For example, if the parent is going through periods of depression or anxiety, related to their divorce, or else dealing with the conflict of being lonely yet not wanting to bring a stranger's presence into the lives of their child, they might be mentally preoccupied and therefore not able to provide a happy, clear state of mind for interaction with the child. Secondly, as mentioned, there are significant economic factors to consider as a single parent, and the anxiety of that, coupled with the guilt the parent might feel for not providing their child with enough might also lead to a preoccupied or stressed state of mind (Blekesaune, 2004). All these