Single Parenting

 Single parenting has always been a different task in Indian society. And lockdown has worsened the

conditions that made single parents even more vulnerable. It is often not acceptable in Indian society as

people often consider single parents as non-capable of raising children. Though children raised by single

parenting can be as normal, healthy, and cheerful as children living with two parents.

It is often believed that single parenting has a negative effect on children but this is not at all true as a

good single parent is better than two parents who create a toxic atmosphere for their child. Single

parenting takes a little more effort and the environment of lockdown affected single parents negatively

as it was now a difficult task to manage both home chores and professional work along with the

responsibility of their children.

Social norms

The myth and stereotype thinking of people have adversely affected the lives of single parents.

It’s not acceptable if a child is raised by a single parent. They are often forced to get married to get

another partner so as to upbring the child properly.

Though this sometimes results in a toxic relationship and can even worse the child’s upbringing. Societal

norms often lead to the suppression of weaker gender and might negatively affect the child.

Who are the single parents?

Single parents are those who live with their child or children and those who don’t have any spouse or

live-in-partners.’

And the reason behind becoming a single parent is divorce, domestic violence, rape, death of another

partner, single personal adoption. And divorce, domestic violence, are cruel factors and for those who

are become single parents, these factors are not that much easy to spend a peaceful life. There are

many hurdles between their life race such as unhappy marriages and thus for divorce rate are inclining.

The education gap in single motherhood

The widening educational gaps in single motherhood have led to widespread concerns about its

implications for social inequality. Single mothers and their children face elevated poverty and other

wellbeing risks, and growing up in a single-mother family can lead to lower educational attainment and

psychological wellbeing in adulthood. Poverty risks and other adverse outcomes can be particularly

prominent among single mothers with low education.

These mothers are often doubly disadvantaged in the labour market, as their employment situation is

restricted by not only their low education but also the challenges of combining paid work with family

responsibilities. Low education and a weak employment situation combined with inadequate policies

can create the ‘triple bind’ that hampers single mother households’ wellbeing. And this is not easy to

hand for any single mother to deal with that much mental and physical stigma.

Impact on the child

Living in a single-parent family is strongly correlated with school failure, delinquency, drugs use, teenage

pregnancies, poverty and welfare dependency.

As the Emma Fransson et al. statics shows the performance of single parents families is poor. Their

physical health, behaviour mental health, peer friendship, cultural activities, sports and family

relationships, compared to children from intact families.

The child experiences the breakdown in family structure shows poor behaviour outcomes and high

psychological disorder. And as many times in single parenting families, the child has to decide without

consulting their parents, and because of their decision are reflects on their choices of right and wrong.

Conclusion

This is a myth that a single parent especially a single mother can’t upbring a child properly. But now

single mother’s have come up with proving society’s stereotypical thinking wrong. They have proved

that a child raised by a single parent especially mothers can raise their children with utmost happiness,

unaffected mental health and a healthy lifestyle.