The February contest #1 by sduttaskitchen|Challenges for a single parent!

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Hello friends!!

Please identify and discuss several challenges faced by single parents

Being a single parent is not a death sentence but I definitely know it's not easy raising a child by one person. I know how it is to raise children even when both father and mother are present.

There are many challenges faced by single parents and they include:

• Financial bills can be so burdensome

One of the most challenging things faced by single parents is financial bills been so burdensome especially when the single parent is the mum. Because she doesn't gets financial support the burden will be in her alone and it can be overwhelming.

• The face the challenge of Time constraints

A single parent practically must learn time management because they practically combine taking care of the kids, school run, and work or business together. It's not always easy. It's a lot of working taking care of a child talk more of combining it your personal stuff. So single parents have time constraints as one of their challenge.

• They go through untold stigma

Over here in my country once you tell someone you are a single parent, the way they look at you automatically changes. They start to relate with you in a certain way as if to say they are better than you. What goes on in their mind first is that you had the child out of wedlock never considering other factors. But even if the child was out of wedlock what's their problem with that?. This goes on and on.

• The Challenge of Balancing taking care of their kids and balancing it with other activities

Been a single parent is not easy at all especially if the child is living with them. They are faced with the challenge of balancing grooming a child and doing other things to survive.

• Stress

Most Single parent go through stress and exhaustion. This is because they do everything by themselves without help of the partner.

Challenge of questioning from their kids

Kids have a way of knowing things especially from observation. Most times these kids observe that their should be a father and mother in a home from their friends or neighbors but when they get home and see only mum or Dad they are focused to start asking questions like "where is my mum?" Or where is my Dad?

How does one perceive adaptation in the context of an individual? Please share your perspective on this matter

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Adaptation has to do with making adjustments to fit into a particular situation and in this case it is adapting to been a single parent.

Been a single parent like I said earlier is not an easy one, it takes so much. One of the ways to adapt is to first work on the mind. When a single parent renews his or her mind that they are now a parent, it takes care of so much.

Another way to adapt is get a help, Nanny or a relative to cushion the burden of taking care of the kid or kids especially when they are out on a business or work. These persons could help with house chores and care giving to the kids. This will go a long way to easy stress on the parent.

To easy financial burden, one of the ways to adapt is to probably get a job or something substantial to do in other to raise money or they can seek for help from family members or special Non governmental organizations that have such specialities.

Single Parents can find time to go out more often which helps their mind to relax from a while lots of stress and love themselves more.

They should be around those friends and family who love them just to encourage them to keep going and it will also make them grow deaf ears to the stigmatization

Do you believe that a child requires the involvement of both parents equally to achieve optimal development? I invite you to share your perspectives on this matter

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Yes I believe a child requires the involvement of both parents to achieve optimal development. Each parent have their individual role in the life of a child therefore if one parent is missing, a void is left unfilled no matter what.

I have a male friend while we were in the university. He had a child while he was in secondary school and the lady left the child for him because he was very young. She said she didn't want to put her life on hold for a child.

This guy has been the one taking care of the child until we met at the University. After he told me his story I decided to meet his son. Guess what? After interacting with his son and spending time with him, I found out that his son lacked the love of a mother, his son wasn't caring at all and hardly shared things with people. I also noticed that he was always on his own.

Every weekends my friend brings his son over at my place to spend time with me. By the end of three months I noticed that his son began to change. I filled in as a mother figure, he became more loving, open and caring.

This is a prove that children needs their both parents to achieve optimal development.