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Facts About Single Parenting - Poverty Plagues Single Parents


WEBWIRE

Montgomery, AL, September 19, 2008 – With a median income hovering dangerously close to the poverty level, households with a child below the age of 18 that are headed by a single woman face a particularly difficult stretch in these tough economic times.

“The average working salary for a single parent is about $28, 000,” says Jennifer Gardner, a writer from Montgomery, Alabama, who recently published a website devoted to single parenting. “And for a single female parent, it is even less.”

Her site, www.singleparentingfordummy.com, is devoted to all things single-parent; an encyclopedia-like collection of articles, information, support, links and other valuable reading material for the single mom or dad. Though the reasons that women, or increasingly, men become single parents vary greatly, they do all share certain basic realities.

“Single parents need a great deal of support from non-traditional sources, since the traditional source, the spouse, is not in the picture,” explains Ms. Gardener, “This accounts for the fact that the income for a young, single mom is so low – she’s often trying to juggle parenting with work and school, and often with little or no support.”

A single parent herself, Ms. Gardener found herself in single-parent circumstances through a divorce. But there are many other reasons individuals become single parents. Besides divorce, the other big cause of involuntary single-parenthood is the death of a spouse.

The voluntary single parent, though, has a variety of choices – traditional conception for women has been joined by artificial insemination, and of course, adoption is available both for women and men.

“Lately,” she explains, “the greatest rise in single parent circumstances is among women in their mid-thirties to early forties. They hear their biological clock ticking, and since the stigma associated with out-of-wedlock birth is on the wane, they simply opt for single-parenthood rather than make a rash decision to marry the wrong person.”

Once considered unthinkable, single-parent adoption is on the rise. “Single individuals, men and women alike, have the urge to nurture and raise a child,” explains Ms. Gardner, “And given the huge number of children, both domestically and especially internationally, who are in substitute care, male single-parent adoption has lost the negative aura it used to have.”

Long thought of as a worst-case scenario for raising a child, Ms. Gardner points to the record high divorce rate to make a case that single-parenting can actually be advantageous. “The child will never be subjected to the trauma of watching his or her parents split up,” she says, “So they essentially have the benefit of living in a more stable household.”

Singleparentingfordummy.com was founded in 2008 by Jennifer A. Gardner of Montgomery, AL. The website is dedicated to providing answers to the myriad questions and concerns of both male and female single parents. The website is intended to be supportive, educational and inspirational, and offers articles, links and advice to the burgeoning single-parent society.

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For more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Jennifer Gardener, contact Ms. Gardener http://www.singleparentingfordummy.com



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