Letsallwrite’s Weblog

It’s suspended teasingly, perhaps even a bit threateningly, above the crib. At first there’s silence, but then with a gentle flick of her wrist two sounds fill the room–one of which melts her heart completely. The soft clash of the beads in the star shaped rattle evoke joyous giggles to escape the infant’s lips. Alone, she relishes the sound; and for a moment allows her mind to be pleasantly distracted from the frightening images of her and her child’s future.

She looks down at the two eight pointed stars–one a vibrant orange with a transparent orb filled with small colorful balls in the center and the other a brilliant yellow with a solid orange orb in the middle. Her fingers grasp tightly around the two intertwining tubes connecting the stars and shakes again. Once more the baby happily kicks, coos, and laughs. She smiles at the innocence…at the innocence that she has yet to realize can, regardless of her situation, be molded into prosperity.

There exists devastating statistics in circulation. For instance, supposedly 75% of children and adolescents in chemical dependency hospitals are from single-parent families. Not completely horrified? What if I told you that children in single-family households are allegedly three times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems? Well, that’s just a beautiful and promising outlook to paint for single parents, eh?

Personally, I think these depressing statistics are a bit askew. Sure, it may be stressful balancing finances and providing emotional support, but if any of the statistics formerly mentioned has any credibility the negative effects would stem from poor parenting skills and technique. Being raised by a single parent has absolutely no bearing on a child’s behavior. Think about it–if you take the unequipped parent of these unadvised ‘delinquents’ and couple them with some random unfortunate soul, wouldn’t the end result be the same?

Many of my friends and associates are from single-parent households and are successful on their chosen paths; not only that, but they all inspire me, a product of a two-parent family, to constantly self-improve. Add that my sister is a single mother of three blossoming children, and you can see why I’m offended by such ridiculous claims. So, I ask–instead of condemning the poor little children, how about we try and teach single parents how to rear kids correctly?