Why are there so many single moms these days?

Question

And please don't say its because men are *******, There must be more of a reason then that. I work at a hospital and it seems like almost every single woman who comes in is a woman under the age of 21 and single. Do you think its an issue with education? Do you think its because these people come from bad households? The statistics are constantly increasing from what they used to be 50 years ago. So whats the problem?

Answer 1

I am a single mom and I look around and find exactly what you are desribing. I have thought about the very same thing. I think it is because e.g. woman can get a divorce easier nowadays and don't have to stay with abusive husbands or cheaters. Also it seems that once women have their first child they mature greatly whereas a lot of guys don't really, they keep acting as if there was no more responsibility than before. And why helping around the house, she did it before... why is it such a big deal now.
This is not to blame anybody no offense here.
And a third thing is that since this is already the next generation where it is easier to get a divorce children don't grow up with argueing and making-up parents anymore so they don't learn how to do it. So when they are growing up they give up faster and don't try as much to keep a relationship as for example children who learned by seeing from their parents. That's pretty much what I think.

Answer 2

They're increasing from 50 years ago because what was acceptable then, and what is acceptable now are 2 totally different things. It wasn't kosher for a woman to be a single mother 50 years ago unless her husband died. Getting divorced or having a child out of wedlock was frowned upon beyond belief. If a woman (teenager or unmarried woman) got pregnant.. the woman was hid from the world and the baby was taken away at birth.. if a woman wasn't happy in her marriage.. she stayed because that's what a woman was supposto do. Statistics haven't really changed.. they've just become more open. We don't really know what the stats are for unwed teenage mothers 50 years ago because they were hidden and secret.

If it had been acceptable for a woman to leave a marriage, then there may have been many that would have done so.

Think about it.. people haven't changed.. it's just that now we know about these things.. and before we didn't.

Answer 3

Young girls are stupid.
I'm 20, i have a 1 year old son, but I'm in a long term relationship with a man who will never leave my side and I'm in college he works 2 jobs and we are definitely older than our years. Although I'm strong enough to admit we done this too young and if it was possible (and i was guaranteed the same child!) i would do it in a few years instead.
What i see around me a girls who sleep with boys to get affection, who don't use condoms because boys don't want to use them (maybe they don't know how, maybe they are stupid). These same types of girls want to keep their boyfriends so they try and get pregnant, possibly hoping the boys will stick around and they will live happily ever after, on £110 a week benefits and when this doesn't happen, they are too scared to have an abortion because they think that it is murder and that babies are cutie little things that make you look cool.
Unfortunately since pregnancy looks so cute these days (blame the fabulous maternity ranges now popping up everywhere) and prams now come in pretty colours and designer logos, it is seen as a status thing.
Simply put, girls are inadvertently educated that motherhood is something to aspire to. Apparently there is nothing to do in secondary school.
I wish these girls could see that so many good things can happen if they just respect themselves a little more and look forward to their twenties.
I love my child with all my heart, but i put my value and self-worth as more than just a mother. A woman can be so much more.

Ooops, this has turned into more of a rant than an answer!!

Answer 4

I think it's a combination of what your asking as well as, women in the work force, being able to up hold her same role from back in the day, very few men are liberated, society definitely influences the youthas well. So being part of this society, you must ask yourself, "What am I do as an example for these ghetto youth?" Do you want your children doing what they see on TV? Will you have enough time to spare to explain the images on TV? And give the sponse their deserved attention? All these things add stress in a world that if you get a little stressed they prescribe a pill and label you some "mental term", which most can't offered on top of everything else, so here comes all the fighting and well 50% of marriages end in divorce, I think because no one will suck it up, take responsibility, let go of pride, establish commincation and turn off that TV. Some people have the American dream and wake up one day and realize it's an american nightmare.

Answer 5

hi, i think that the single mom issue really isn't all that new just more talked about now than say when i was a kid...i am 33 and my mom was a single parent as well as a lot of my friends moms. i really just think that now in this day and age that more and more women feel that they don't need a man to help raise the children. and on the flip side i do think that most of the young teens and tweens are the product of their parents either being to busy and cant take the time to educate their children or they just don't care. unfortunately in my daughters school there are a lot of grandparents taking care of their own kids, kids. very sad actually that they can't enjoy their adulthood because they have to serve as parents to these children. i'm not sure that all households of single mom's are bad but unfortunately most single parent households don't educate their children about safe sex and drugs and then when they turn of age to get pregnant....they do. and i think that is why you are seeing so many single mom's. It all falls back to the parent no matter what generation we are talking about.

Answer 6

Simply because it is possible.
Nowadays, society does not make a woman life impossible if she has a baby out of wedlock - there is help out there. A woman can get a job, and with lots of work and dedication can manage to also bring up a child. It is no walk in the park, but it can be done and is being done.

Until recently, it was a matter of survival! food and board needed two people working at it, and society morals were much stricter. Result: illegal abortion and child abandonment at birth.

Of course, a better sexual education would provide girls with the information about how to avoid getting pregnant... but some actually choose it.

Answer 7

I think one of the big problems for their being really young teen mother (i'm one of them) is that schools and parents aren't teaching them well enough on birthcontrol. They only want to insist on abstinence, but come on, its time to come to reality that teenagers will do it anyways and telling them not to will make them want to even more. Schools and parents, despite not wanting their child having sex, need to educate teenagers on every birthcontrol available to them including the pros and cons of each different form. It really disturbs me when parents actually tell their child that they cannot get birthcontrol and you know the child will go out and have sex anyways. If your child asks for birth control, why deny them? Would you rather risk the chance of them getting pregnant? Teenagers can't be monitered 24/7 and I would rather have a sound mind that they are on birthcontrol just in case. If they are open enough to ask for it, then they will get it. The sooner we get a better sex education, the sooner the unwanted pregnancies will diminish. Unless of course the single mother in question wanted to be a single mother. My sister did. She's 25 with a good career and she wanted a child. She was thinking of adoption because she was supposedly unable to have kids, but when she got pregnant she was more then happy. Any woman who has the money and the want for a child has my support.

Answer 8

I question your comments. You ask us not to mention the fact that the men are *******. I don't think you can determine why there are so many single moms without mentioning the fathers. (it takes two to have a baby)
You are leaving the entire responsibility on the shoulders of the women. (young women) By excluding them you leave room for answers concerning only the education or lifestyles of the girls. That is unfair and sexist. Even if we educate our girls, it is not their sole responsibility to ensure that a pregnancy doesn't occur.
Our society has made it more welcoming to single parents. (before you would have seen many young marriages or young girls going to "visit" a relative for a few months returning without a baby.) Men have it easier now, they are not under as much pressure to marry a girl they get pregnant. With more emphasis on sex in the media I don't wonder that more and more young people are having sex.

Answer 9

It is increasing because it is not frowned upon the way it used to be and women are more capable now of being single mothers since they can now get jobs and put their kids into day care without everyone shunning them.

Answer 10

These two reasons seem to be the most common, either seperaately or conjoined:

1. The baby's father is a complete jerk and the mother doesn't want him to be a part of the baby's life

2. The father dissapears from the scene the moment that news of the pregnancy hits his ears.