Single parent families are becoming common day by day. These families take all kinds of forms; from those directed by the father or the mother to those directed by the grandparents or even the parents of the children as a person raising his nephew alone. Life in such a home is often as stressful for parents as it is for children. Here are some of the single parenthood issues these households face.
Establish a work-life balance
Sometimes your company's work culture can be stressful, so you find yourself working when you should be at home with your kids. In a normal family, father and mother might take turns looking for their families so that when one is working the other is at home; however, for a single parent this is not possible. Things like taking your child to and from school when you should be working are stressful. To improve the situation, it is advisable to establish a routine that ensures that the child knows what to expect even if it is not enough.
Quality of parenthood
Research has shown that many single parents have difficulty functioning properly as parents. These parents are often less supportive of their children emotionally, are more severe and discipline is inconsistent, supervise their children less and are often in conflict with their children. These deficits are the result of parents struggling to make ends meet. Such a quality of parenthood leads to their children's poor performance in school, children's emotional imbalance as well as low self-esteem which makes it difficult to establish and maintain social relationships.
Exposure to stress
Children raised by lone parents are exposed to more stress than their counterparts in normal families. The condition is aggravated if there is a conflict between the resident and non-resident parent. Such conflict often puts children in the middle more when one parent disrespects the other before the children or tries to recruit the children against the other.
Visits and custody issues
This is another issue that many single parent families face, for example where the parents have custody and visitation issues so the court prevents a parent from visiting the children. This makes children unable to contact one of their parents, leading to a host of issues such as emotional imbalance, poor performance, or even low self-esteem.
While some find single parenthood rewarding, for the most part, as studies have shown, it is a pothole-filled walk.