Revised: Single Parent Community

The resources available to the single parent community have also improved and this has had a great impact on the community in general. My interviewee Katrina said “there was not much help or outreaches geared towards single parents.” The fact that 20 years ago there were not many classes or groups or events geared towards the single parent community really limited them in the contact they had with other single parent families; families of their own community. With the internet being so readily available now, this provides many opportunities for single parents to connect with others in their community. Websites like “Singlefamilyvoices.com” provide single parents an opportunity to meet, chat and find support within their community. There are also many dating websites for single parents like “Goodsingleparents.com or Iheartsingleparents.com.” All of these places provide networking within the single parent community, networking that was not readily available 20 years ago.

Understanding is an important element within the single parent community and outsiders can have a hard time understanding why people put themselves in this situation or choose this lifestyle. In the essay, “A Secret Society of the Starving” by Mim Udovitch, she states, “Pro-ana, the basic premise of which is that an eating disorder is not a disorder but a lifestyle choice…” (113). Members of the single parent community can be viewed the same as those in the example of those with eating disorders, that it is a lifestyle choice. Many people naively believe that this is a choice someone makes, a choice to be a single parent. I won’t deny that some people do make that choice, like the single mother in California that decided to go through in-vitro fertilization to have more children knowing that she would still be a single parent when she had those babies; she obviously knowingly made that choice. The majority of people don’t willingly become single parents, and for some people, they choose to become single parents for the betterment of or for the safety of themselves and their children. The difference in understanding between the single parent community 20 years ago versus today is based on accessibility. When I interviewed Katrina about being a single parent 20 years ago she said that, “No one talked about being a single parent back then. We didn’t have the support of other single parents or groups or clubs like there are today.” Not everyone understands what single parents are going through 20 years ago or today, so being in a single parent community helps provide them with a sense of belonging and stability.