According to Biblical scriptures, a family was made up of two persons, that is, the husband and the wife. The two parents are supposed to raise their children together. Due to unavoidable circumstances one parent may be forced to perform the roles of the other partner. This may result from the death of one parent, getting children out of wed lock, and divorce which causes the two parents to stay apart. But this paper focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of single motherhood.
Mackay argues that women who are left to take care of their children find it difficult to play their roles and those of a father (2). In families where a father once existed and he was the soul bread winner his sudden death would leave the children devastated because the mother will take ages before she can handle her husband duties without pressure.
In the past decades when women were designated to taking care of children widows found themselves between the rock and a hard place because they could not work hence the entire family was subjected to extreme poverty. Some opted to beg in the streets and others depended on the relatives to give them food.
According to research carried out by Australia’s parliament Social Policy group this poverty can lead to moral decay in the family because the mother may turn to prostitution in order to sustain her family and in return her daughters would follow her footsteps (Rickard 1).
The mother may be doing this vice innocently but again when something is practiced for so long it becomes a culture which could be passed over to the upcoming offspring. It is difficult to deal with such a problem because there is no one to instill discipline to the children thus the children are left to do as they wish because the mother has no time for such things.
Miller and Ridge argue that apart from indiscipline among children the children will lack fatherly love. Additionally the mother will be challenged when dealing with the sons because there are certain things she does not understand about men and if the father was present he would counsel the boys at ease (2).
Most fathers shield their children from immoral behavior and they achieve this by the authority that is accorded to them and once a father is gone the mother cannot achieve the same results because mothers are gentle, hence the children are not afraid of their mother. The results of lack of a father figure are indicated by the children of such families because it is common for daughters from single mothers to become pregnant at an early age. Sons too may become seasoned thugs because some of them drop out of school due to lack of school fees.
According to Bergman daughters raised without a father may not acknowledge the necessity of marriage when they grow up because they are not aware of the role of a father in their lives (1).
This is because even the men who date their mothers are not concerned about them because they are dating these women just for the sake of satisfying their sexual desires. Some of these men defile the daughters of these women because they don’t feel attached to them. Besides, a family without a father is considered unsafe because fathers are the ones who fight intruders.
Despite the above mentioned problems the children of single mothers tend to be active thinkers because most of the time they make decisions on their own and some excel in school due to their strong ambition to liberate their families from poverty. The children of single parents enjoy a cool environment without quarrels unlike their counterparts who are used to seeing their parents quarrelling and fighting in their presence.
Nowadays more women are earning a descent living and even in the absence of their husbands they are capable of sustaining the needs of their children. This implies that the children won’t lack anything and since some of them are disciplinarians they ensure the children are well behaved.
Therefore, from the analysis it is important for individuals to plan for their kids in any circumstances. Apart from death of a single parent, husband and wife should try as it is humanly possible to minimize the causes of separation. This is important because the disadvantages of a home without a father outweigh the advantages.
Works Cited
Bergman, Mike. “Single-Parent households Showed little variation since 1994.” U.S Census Bureau. 27 March 2007. Web.
MacKay, Rose. ”The impact of family structure and family change on child outcomes: a personal reading of the research literature.” Social Policy Journal of New Zealand March 2005. Web.
Miller, Jane, and Tess Ridge. ”Families, Poverty, Work and care: A review of literature on lone parents and low income couple families.” DWP Research Report No 153, 2001.
Rickard, Maurice. ”Children of Lesbian and Single women parents.” Social Policy Group, Parliament of Australia. 41(2001-02). Web.