Single parents get a fair amount of criticism from the community on a regular basis. It seems you can’t turn on the TV without hearing about how the world’s problems all go back to these kids coming from broken homes. “If only his father was around, then he wouldn’t have dropped out of high school.” “If her parents had stayed together she definitely wouldn’t have ended up pregnant!” We’ve all heard it a thousand times before, but when it comes down to it, we’re not really that different than our married counterparts. We love our children just as deeply, support our children just as strongly, and nurture them just as lovingly on a daily basis.
A recent study conducted by the University of Alberta sociology department found that divorce has little impact on the parenting practices in the majority of families. While this is a time of insurmountable stress, the divorce did little to disrupt their regular parenting practices. They were just as committed to successful parenting as they were when they were married, if not more so.
Finding balance right at first may be difficult for some parents, as so many significant changes are happening all at once, but most quickly find a way to cope with the new found stresses of single parenting and continue to be a positive role model for their children.
There’s no handbook when it comes to this parenting thing. We are all trying to figure things out one day at a time; sometimes we get it right, sometimes we don’t. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy. In fact it is very rarely easy, but in the end it is so, so worth it. Remember all parents make mistakes, both single and married. There’s no sense in blaming all the world’s problems on the one.