Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
EN 101
Narration Essay
2 October 2019
unemployed for at least a year after becoming a single mother. Therefore, the mother was either
receiving no income or was receiving unemployment benefits. If the mother also did not
complete high school or attend college then it may be very hard to get a good paying job.
Although, there are good paying jobs that do not require college, they would take up a lot of the
parent’s time. Single-parent homes are detrimental to the children that live there because the
parent would not be as involved in the child's life as if there were two parents, the child may not
get all the help they need, and the parent may not make enough money to support herself with a
child.
There are many things that children want their parents to show up to or participate in.
When single parents are working two jobs to pay for their children, it can be very hard to make
time to be available. There are things like plays or spring programs that children want their
parents to watch, but a single parent may not have the time for that. Children also like when their
parents show up to sporting events and support them; sometimes parents even practice with their
child at home. Parents can support their child in many different ways when they choose to or
homework or other activities. My mom helps me do my homework, and if she was not there to
help, then I may not get assignments done on time or I might end up staying awake really late
and losing more sleep than if she did help. She also plays soccer with me to help me get ready
for a game or to just spend time together. Doing these things can take up a lot of time that the
parent of a single-parent household does not have. Children, along with parents, have a lot of
things to do and sometimes need their help within their parent’s free time, but children can not
get the help they need if their parent has no free time.
High schoolers, for example, don’t have much time at all to do anything because of the
fact that a lot of high school children have part-time jobs on top of school and other activities. A
part-time job while going to school and having extra-curricular activities is not bad, but some
high schoolers end up having to get a full-time job to help financially support their parent. I had
an old co-worker that was in this situation; she had a single mother that did not make enough
money to support the family of two. Because of this, my co-worker was always stressed out
which led her to either give up school or quit her job and she ended up dropping out of high
school. This can happen with two-parent homes, but it is not as likely. Having a job is important
for a high school student. They can be taught what life is like in the workplace and learn
responsibilities. But having a job can get very stressful especially when the child has to pay the
bills with their parents. A child’s future can be affected due to not being able to do the extra
things in high school and sometimes not even being able to finish high school.
Single-parent homes are not good for children because they would not be able to have
their parent around, the child may not get the help they need to get work done, and unless the
parents have a good paying job, they may not have enough money to support themselves and a
child. The financially unstable families would then be able to apply to one or more of the many
benefits started to help people pay for their home and family. Some of them help with providing
food for the family, others just give money to help. Even though single parents can be given food
and money, they cannot be given more time. A parent’s time with their child is crucial. It is very
hard for one parent to find a way to balance all of these factors out, and some manage to do so,
but some cannot. In contrast, with two-parent homes, the two parents can have jobs and double
Roiphe, Katie. "In Defense of Single Motherhood" Acting Out Culture: Readings for Critical
Inquiry, by James S. Miller, 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2015, pp. 58-61.
singlemotherguide.com/single-mother-statistics/.