"You can do anything you want to do as long as you set your mind to it and do not give up on it." These are the words my mother told me when I was a little girl. Through the years, I have grown to believing in these words and using them as my inspiration similar to my mother. My mother was a single parent at the age of 17 and did not decide to attend college until she was 35 years old. She felt that she had too many barriers in her way as being a single mother.
My initials thoughts of the voice I have chosen is that all single mothers struggle with success in college. I also feel that many single mothers give up on pursing a degree in higher education because their main priority should be their child. Being a college student for many years,
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My mother went back to college as a single mother at the age of 30. I did not understand her struggle until this voice project. I got a more understanding of the hard work, dedication, and drive of this population. I also learned about the negative things that this population experience as well. I feel that I met the project expectations of researching, gaining experience, and interviewing single mothers of this population. I was not able experience as much as I wanted because it is very difficult to really live the life of a single mother in college. I thought babysitting would give me that experience but I understand that I would truly never experience it because I am not a …show more content…
Some are heartfelt and some will make you want to cry. One thing I have learned from this population is that they are very strong women. The amount of negative treatment, stereotypes, and rude names they are called throughout their experience of raising a child alone, who would not learn to be strong. One of my interviews a mother talked about her dating experience and how individuals view her from that perspective. Many single mothers continue to be single because many men do not want the “baggage” or the responsibility of caring for a child that is not their own. They also struggle with stress and burn out because of the hectic life one has to encounter continuously as a single mother in college. They have to learn to adjust and transition to the college world while caring for a child and many times
The struggles Cecelia faced as a single mother working to complete a degree and support herself and her son did strike a familiar tone with me. Although I did raise my daughter as a single mother in California for almost six years, unlike Cecelia I was well employed, had completed my bachelor’s degree, and was in my thirties. Even so I also struggled more than occasionally with bias against my status as a single mother, albeit a successful professional, and the unanticipated ways this affected my daughter. There were clear biases evinced by teachers, child care workers, doctors, childless friends and coworkers, who all believed that they had not only the right to judge my d...
Sometimes, when the reader reads a story or an essay, they think, “Wow that had a lot of meaning into it”. That was the same for me “In Defense of Single Motherhood”. This essay appeals to all modes of persuasion: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. The author of the essay, Katie Roiphe, is credible person. She is a notable author of several books over the past two decades. She wrote this essay in 2012 which was published in the New York Times. Roiphe emphasizes logos throughout the essay the majority of the time through the use of studies and reports, mostly to persuade the reader to her side, but she also emphasizes ethos and pathos, just not as much as logos. The audience of the argument is most readers of the New York Times to emphasize her point on single motherhood. Roiphe claims single motherhood is not bad like everyone says it is.
Participant six is a 30-year-old Caucasian office assistant. She is a mother of one. She has had two semesters of college experience, but was unable to continue because she stated: “my child take up a lot of my time.” She goes on to say “it was hard for
We want to know about the educational experiences of college students who were raised in single-parent homes. We are performing an interpretive qualitative research study that is descriptive. We will use non-probability, snowball-sampling methods to gather idiographic data from intensive interviews. We will be covering college student’s overall performance in school, their educational aspirations, and family, teacher, and peer involvement throughout their education. Also, we will explore students’ belief about the impact of their parent’s academic attainment and achievement as well as their financial situation. We will discuss students and parents definitions of success and how they influence their confidence levels in achieving their future educational goals. We will assess how the attitudes, will, and efforts of both parent and students produce a positive or negative educational experience.
McLoyd, V. C., & Wilson, L. (1992). Telling them like it is: The role of economic and environmental factors in single mothers? discussions with their children. American Journal of Community Psychology, 20, 419-444.
In the trajectory of humanity, single parenting has become a concept internationally accepted by most modern cultures. What exactly causes single parenthood? Well there are many factors in which could result in a single parent household. Death of a partner, divorce, and unintended pregnancy are just some of the causes of single parenthood. Based on this worldwide acknowledgement and understanding, single parenthood is usually aided by monetary help from the government or unions. Although financial help is available, the psychological effects a child goes through could never be fixed by any type of cash value. These psychological traumas and mental changes could affect the parent raising the child as well. Even with some financial help, single parents sometimes struggle to make ends meet. A study featured in Time magazine informed Americans that middle to lower class single parents will work 40+ hour weeks at minimum wage to provide for their child. If the parent is so busy at work, who's watching the child? Sometimes, the single parent might still have connection with their own families. Grandma and grandpa have to raise the child since the parent is hard at labor to provide for their offspring. Occasionally, some of our elderly folk do not have the competence to watch over a child. It might even be that the child is too energetic and could wear out the seniors. The child will then resort to the television, street, friends, etc to learn and grow. These influences might be negative for the child especially if they're not coming from the mother or father. An investigation of single parenting leads to the affirmation that raising a child by yourself is very difficult and must be approached very leniently and effectively.
Both parents are critical for a child’s growth and development. Not having a parent may impact both child and parent adversely. “Children with one parent are at higher risk of delinquency, then, because there is one less person capable of supervision” (Anderson, 576). It seems only logical that a child raised by one parent would have a harder time trying to stay out of trouble. Individual and Contextual Influences on Delinquency: The Role of the Single-parent Family an article written by Amy Anderson focuses on the single-parent family role. The data used to examine this role was taken from an evaluation type of research called the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT). The sample population was 5,935 eighth-grade students, aged thirteen to fifteen from forty-two schools at eleven sites. They used three measures of self-reported delinquency, status, property, and person offenses. The results of this study seemed to be that the specific family structure did not affect weather an adolescent participated in delinquent activity.
I was fortunate to have a mother who was invested in my academic success and knew that education afforded a variety of opportunities especially for people who come from where I come from and look the way I do. Having to commute over an hour to receive quality education that was in the backyards of some of my classmates is a morbid analogy for what being a South Side Chicago student looks like and illuminates the realities of injustice and the possibilities for change on a global scale. Giving back is the most rewarding investment, I am dedicated to pursuing education as a means to better understand myself and the world so that I can pour what I have acquired into to my community. Through social outreach, I know I can restore hope in place of defeat and help foster many prospects for those living in the
Being a single parent is a fantastic job and eight years later my son had a little sister. That was my focus, raising two terrific kids to become fully functioning adults that contribute to society. My daughter is now at ASU pursuing an education degree and my son has a great job in the tech industry.
There is much debate on what constitutes as a family today. However, Ball (2002) states, “The concept of the traditional family…is not an immutable one. It is a social construct that varies from culture to culture and, over time, the definition changes within a culture” (p. 68). There is a growing diversity of families today including the commonality of sole-parenting. In order to explore aspects of sole-parenthood objectively, I need to reflect and put aside my personal experience of growing up in sole-parent household. Furthermore, this essay will explore the historical origins, cultural aspects discussing the influences and implications of gender identity, and social structures of sole-parent families, as well as consider the implications in midwifery by applying the sociological imagination. Mills (2000/1959) describes the sociological imagination as “…a quality of mind that seems most dramatically to promise an understanding of the intimate realities of ourselves in connection with larger social realities” (p.15). In other words, the sociological imagination involves the ability to consider the relationships between personal experiences and those within society as a whole.
Single parenting numbers increase each year. In America there is almost fourteen million single parents raising about thirty-two million children, twenty six percent are under twenty one years of age. Eighty-two percent of single parents are mothers and about eighteen percent are fathers (“Single Parent Statistics-Average Single Parent Statistics”).There are a lot of stereo types about single parents, most of which are untrue, but some can be true also. Single parenting is becoming more common in this generation, and it’s not just because of one reason. There are many reasons these days that there are single parents.
This book is a study of the personal tales of many single mothers, with intentions to understand why single mothers from poor urban neighborhoods are increasingly having children out of wedlock at a young age and without promise of marrying their fathers. The authors chose to research their study in Philadelphia’s eight most devastated neighborhoods, where oppression and danger are high and substantial job opportunities are rare. They provide an excellent education against the myth that poor young urban women are having children due to a lack of education on birth control or because they intend to work the welfare system. Instead, having children is their best and perhaps only means of obtaining the purpose, validation and companionship that is otherwise difficult to find in the areas in which they live. For many of them, their child is the biggest promise they have to a better future. They also believe that though their life may not have been what they want, they want their child to have more and better opportunities and make it their life’s work to provide that.
Becoming a single mother, shortly before my son turned two-years-old, was life altering. Moving back in with my family, realizing I had no income, and no longer the team effort from his father, was an indescribable sense of failure as a parent. Obtaining my masters degree in Health Care Leadership from the University of Denver is my way to correct that, and properly fulfill my role and obligations of being a single mother to a remarkable little five-year-old.
Parenting is the practice of supporting and encouraging the physical, emotional, social and academic development of a child from birth to adult. Society says children should be raised in a two-parent family. Although, in most cases raising a child or children in a two-parent family is best, there are situations where children are better off living and being raised by one parent.
One of the hardest issues to survive in, as a single parent, is an overwhelming emotion that you should complete the role of both mother and father. This feeling evolves and will be more intense if the other single parent is not portraying a role that is active with the children.