Being a single parent isn’t easy. It’s like doing two jobs at a time. Single parenting necessitates you to be an understanding mother or a tough and a providing father all at the same time.

Stress and single parenting, consequently, work together, giving single moms and dads a hard road to travel each and every day.

Stress and single parenting are the common themes in self-help books on parenting. Psychologists believe that bringing up kids or even just a single child is a very stressful undertaking that calls for  management of emotional, behavioural and spiritual aspects of being a single parent.

Without the right direction from self-help books, counsellors and/or group therapy, a single parent can fall apart emotionally due to stress.

So how can you cope with stress and single parenting? Psychologists say that in order for a parent to contend with both stress and single parenting, he or she should list the things that brings him or her the tension.

Here are some facts about single parenting in the US:

- There are presently approximately 11.9 million single parents in the nation
- 84% of children living under a single parent reside their mothers
- Amongst all racial groups, the percentage of two-parent families has been drastically declining over the years
- Around 28% of American children aged 18 years old and below reside with a single parent
- 85% of custodial parents are mothers and only about 15% are fathers
- 53.7% of custodial single parents work full time jobs, while 30% are temporary workers
- Around 59% of single parents in custody of their children have some kind of child support agreements with the other parent
- The average household income for custodial parents is US$28,000
- Most single parents live in metropolitan areas

If you’re a single parent, you shouldn’t fret. There are ways you are able to obtain support, both financially and emotionally.

The US government offers financial support for single parents who have proven themselves unable to provide enough care for their children. The law acknowledges that single parents face responsibilities that are much more complicated than families with two parents, hence the provision for financial assistance.

This way, the government takes part in reducing the pressures and hardships single parents face every single day. Despite the absence of a partner, single parents are not alone in the challenging task of rearing their kids. The government is there and very often willing to help.
Web sites like SingleParentsNetwork.com and SingleParentsMingle.com also provide venues for single parents to meet other single parents. They offer articles relevant to single parents’ situations and a meeting place for single parents to talk about challenges that face them and their children.

Counsel from professionals can also build or manufacture a support system that will make single parenting more comfortable and a lot easier. Since single parenting isn’t ordinary parenting, the parent and the child must learn to live with the situation without the negative feelings.

Single parenting is starting to become a normal occurrence. Society is not as judgmental towards the single parent and the child as it was even just a few years ago. It is probably due to the rising number of single parents in the country. A lot of single parents work very hard at being good parents and some of this rubs off on all of us , slowly changing the landscape .

The more accepted it is for single parents in society , the easier it becomes for us to be better parents. With the acceptance a lot of the stress is taken off of our backs and we realize we don’t have to be superdad , just dad.

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