Single Parenthood - Research Paper Example

Staying together family relationships are much weaker than the marital relationships and it can break any time because of the lack of commitments in such relationships. “Single-parent families in today's society have their share of daily struggles and long-term disadvantages. The issues of expensive day care, shortage of quality time with children, balance of work and home duties, and economic struggle are among the seemingly endless problems these families must solve” (Drew). This paper analyses various reasons, effects and other sociological dimensions of single parenthood.

There are many reasons for single parenthood. Divorce seems to be the most important reason for single parenthood. Current generation is not much bothered about getting divorced. The influence of religions on human life is getting reduced as time goes on and therefore the beliefs in morality and ethics are also getting reduced. When a conflict occurs between the husband and the wife, most of the couples decide to separate, without a second thought. They will not think about moral values, religious teachings or the future of their children at that juncture.

Not being married is another common reason why someone would be practicing single parenting. Women who become pregnant outside of marriage no longer have the social stigma to marry the man who impregnated them. Instead, many women chose to have their baby without the help of a husband (The Various Reasons For Single Parenting). Changing life styles and life philosophies are contributing heavily to single parenthood. Current teenagers are not much worried about pregnancies when they engage in pre-marital sexual activities.

In most of the cases, the boy who was responsible for causing pregnancies to the girl would not marry the girl. Some unmarried teenagers will perform abortion whereas others will keep their pregnancy. Those who keep their pregnancy will try to adopt a single parent family life after the birth of her child. Single parenthood is not good either for the couples or for the children. In a normal family, both husband and wife shares their responsibilities whereas in a single parent family such sharing of responsibilities is not taking place.

In other words, the responsibilities of the parent will be doubled in a single parent family. In normal families, husbands normally earn money for the family expenses whereas the wives normally look after the children and other family matters. In single parent families, the parent forced to do both of the above duties and therefore he/she may struggle to execute the entire responsibilities in a positive manner. In short, the stress levels of the parents are more in single parent families than in normal families.

Children are most vulnerable to the negative effects of single parenthood. Children during their developmental stages require the love and care of both the father and the mother. A father cannot provide the same level of love and intimacy which the mother is capable of providing to their children. Same way a mother cannot enforce the same level of control over the children, that a father is capable of enforcing. In other words, father’s control and mother’s love and affection are essential for the proper development of children.

A mother can never be a father and vice versa. According to Park (2008), “The vulnerable conditions of children living with a single parent, associated with the low level