Jaheem O’Hara

4/18/2024

Lang 120

Professor Shepard

Single parents need help

On May 13th 2016, my father divorced my mother and left me and my younger brother to live in

a single parent home. My mother was devastated and overwhelmed with all that she now had to

deal with on her own. I felt that there wasn’t much that I could do to help since I was only 11 at

the time. Living in a single parent household has brought many struggles and challenges into

our lives as we faced new financial hardships and relied heavily on the community around us for

much needed support.

Single parents have to spend most of their money on bills, rent, and groceries which doesn’t

leave room for extracurricular activities. Single parents can barely get through life with their

income. From an article made by Matt Black, A charity worker for single parents, says that,

“71% of single parents find managing finances difficult; half of single parents (whether in or out
of work) run out of money before the end of the month; more than a third are behind on debt

repayments” (Matt Black 2019). This data gives factual evidence that single parents don’t have

enough money for extra curricular activities let alone their daily needs as said from before. Even

though single parents should focus their money on needs, they also need to focus on the mental

health of themselves and their children. Going out with their child to a restaurant, water park, or

a vacation can help reduce stress in parents. Parents have enough stress as it is, but that stress

also transfers to the child and Paul Amato, a professor from Penn State with a PhD in

behavioral science, backs this up by saying “Discourses relating to stress reflected children’s

experiences of the limitations in time and energy that mothers could allocate to their children,

especially in the context of full-time employment, low levels of support, and constrained financial

resources” (Amato 1995). This quote that Amato had said shows how a single parent’s stress

could reflect onto their children. That's why doing these types of activities help the child’s

wellbeing and happiness which in turn makes the parent happy. An experiment took place in

2013 seeing if parents are happier with children than their childless peers and Berit Brogaard,

who has a PhD in D.M. Science, states that “The researchers reported that parents are happier

when taking care of their children” (Berit Brogaard 2013). This experiment has given factual

data that parents are happier in life with children than without, so having fun experiences can

help the parent and child both be happy mentally and help build a good relationship between

them.

Single parents don’t always have the support or help that they need. For instance, my brother

wants to go to his basketball practice, but since my mother is working he doesn’t have a ride to

go. He is missing out on social interaction, exercise, and having fun, all because he didn’t have

a ride. Having a community member such as another player’s parent provide transportation has
enabled him to go to his basketball practices and experience the social interaction, exercise,

and fun that children his age should receive.

It is very difficult being a single parent. They have to take all of the responsibilities of life all on

their own with little to no help, while having to raise another living being with only one income to

live off of. There are many things we can do to help make these single parent’s lives easier. We

can be a part of their community to help take care of the child and provide transportation when

the parent needs to work.

Single parents struggle with their finances since they are only bringing in one income, but it

became worse during the pandemic. Global Health Promotions specialists confirm in a scholarly

journal that “the unemployment rate for single mothers in the US more than tripled in the early

stages of the COVID-19 pandemic”(Department of Global Health Promotion 2023). Single

parents already face financial challenges and the fact that they are losing their jobs at a higher

rate due to the pandemic makes it almost impossible for them to provide for themselves and

their children.

We could help single parent families financially by donating to organizations such as the “Single

Parent Project” which uses the donated money to help single parents pay for their groceries,

bills, rent, and utilities which will help single parent families stay stable financially. Through

community involvement and donations we can help alleviate the difficulties of being a single

parent.

Bibliography
Brimhall, M. (n.d.). The Single Parent Project. https://www.singleparentproject.org/
Nixon, E., Greene, S., & Hogan, D. (2015). “It’s What’s Normal for Me”: Children’s Experiences
of Growing Up in a Continuously Single-Parent Household. Journal of Family Issues, 36(8),
1043-1061. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X13494826

Wakai H, Nawa N, Yamaoka Y, Fujiwara T (2023) Stressors and coping strategies among single
mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS ONE 18(3): e0282387.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282387

Manley, B. (2020). American Politics and Policy. Retrieved April 17, 2024, from
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/12/10/what-us-policymakers-can-learn-from-how-the-eu-
tackles-poverty-among-single-parent-families/.

Amato P. R. (1995). Single-parent households as settings for children’s development,

well-being, and attainment: A social network/resources perspective. Sociological
Studies of Children, 7, 19-47.

Brogaard, B. (2015, February 15). Does being a parent really make you happier?.
Psychology Today.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mysteries-love/201502/does-being-
parent-really-make-you-happier

Black, M. (2021, May 11). Empowering single parents towards Financial Resilience:
What we’ve learnt so far. Shift. https://shiftdesign.org/empowering-single-parents-
towards-financial-resilience-weve-learnt-far/#:~:text=The%20statistics%20are
%20sobering.%2071%25%20of%20single%20parents,than%20a%20third%20are
%20behind%20on%20debt%20repayments.