Tips for Single Parents -- Pro's and Con's

There are goods and bad about every thing, same is true for single parenting. However if you sum up the two for single parenting the bads will far outnumber the goods. Therefore all single parents work with a disadvantage.

All parenting issues are centered on children. This also holds true for single parents. All single parents except few have to work and also look after the children without the help from the other partner. The question is whether a single parent has time and ability to earn and look after the children alone. If the child goes to school he is being looked after there while the parent is at work but for preschool children some sort of arrangement is to be made so that they are looked after at home during their parent's working hours. Preschool is difficult to afford and there may be more than one kid. At this time the grandparents may step in to play their role. This is very important as according to the US Census conducted in 2000, 5.6 million kids reside with their grand parents. Many preschool children are not fortunate enough to have grandparents or any other relative to look after them when their parent is at work. In this case either the parent should work at home or arrange something for the children. This is the major difficulty faced by single parents.

Second difficulty faced by single parents is time management. Raising kids is a full time job and so is your work. Managing the two in the same 24 hrs puts extra stress on the parent. So every day you start off as a machine. You get up early and prepare the breakfast. Then you get yourself and your child ready for the day. You leave for work and drop your child at school early at 7 am. Then you get past all the traffic to reach your office. After a tiring day's work you leave your office at 5 pm and pick your child on the way home. Without a moment to relax you start to prepare dinner and help your child with the homework. You are lucky if you don't have to bring your work home. As soon as you are finished with homework and dinner it is bedtime and you put your kid in bed after a bath and a bedtime story. This is what happens each weekday. More so, special arrangements are required for the kids during holidays. Not that it is physically and emotionally taxing it also affects your progress in your profession. This is another difficulty faced by single parents.

If you are a lone parent or planning to be one it is important for you to realize that proper planning is the key to your success and so is a support network. The biggest issue to solve is the time distribution between yourself, work and children so that you can spend few meaningful moments with your children. It is also a drawback that all single parents have to do all the work alone but patience, a little support and good planning can help you a lot.