There are more single parents these days than there used to be even two decades ago. And what was unacceptable then is now marginally more accepted, although there are still some cases where single parents are looked on with shock and horror. You might not think it true in this day and age, but the sad fact of the matter is, that no matter how liberated we are, we’re still not liberated enough to accept some situations of single parents.
It might be perfectly acceptable to be widowed single parents, and it might even be acceptable to be divorced single parents, but what about the single mother who’s seventeen and still in high school? It’s by no means right or the best thing for kids to become parents at such a young age, but it becomes almost even more impossible for them when they remain single.
Unfortunately, young single parents come under a lot of criticism when they should instead be getting support. They made a mistake, sure, but everyone makes mistakes, and they’ve probably paid a very high price for theirs. Who are we really to place a stigma on them and their children and make an admittedly hard life even harder?
Then again single parents can also come disguised in the form of non-married couples. This is just as much shock and horror for some people as teenage single parents. They can’t understand why you would become pregnant if you’re not married and feel that without marriage a union isn’t lasting or binding.
And when the couples split up and go their separate ways as sometimes happens, they feel even more vindicated in pointing out that they really shouldn’t have had children in the first place, without a wedding band on the finger.
A great piece of what they’re forgetting here is that it doesn’t matter if you married your partner before having any children because a great many married couples split up as well. And they have children too. So why then are divorced single parents more acceptable than non-married single parents?
Remember also that it wasn’t all that long ago when even divorced singles were frowned upon in society, never mind if they were divorced single parents or not. So what’s the problem right? If the pattern holds, then ultimately all these single parents who are so shunned by society now will become socially acceptable as time passes.