Single parenthood is a situation where a single parent takes care of a single or many children without any assistance, mostly physically, from the other biological parent. Due to the increased changes from the traditional ways of doing things, over the years, single parents have increased.
The major reasons why there are single parents increase, particularly in Britain, is due to divorce, artificial insemination, adoption, death of one of the parents and abandonment(BURKS, Paul and, 2006).To many, this seems to be a better option considering the many problems associated by a situation whereby two parents live together. To others they have no choice because the reason for the single parenthood is due to unforeseen circumstances like death or abandonment. For Britain, the major reason for single parents is due to divorce. While many see it as advantageous, it does cause many social problems to those involved and the whole society at large.
The effects brought by lone parenthood vary depending on the parent's education level, age, occupation and the income received(USDANSKY, Margaret L, 1998). One of the social problems caused by the lone parenthood is that the children from this families end up growing without learning how to relate with the opposite sex people. When this children are brought up by one parent, they do not see how their parents relate with a member of the opposite sex hence they end up learning late how to relate with opposite sex from their peers. Moreover, these single parents end up being so busy to find time to teach their children on how to relate with opposite sex mostly if the child is a boy and the single parent is a man or the opposite. The social problem arising here is that this children end up being unable to interact with people of the opposite sex, a situation that make them end up being gays(CLAPP, Genevieve, 2000).
The single parents, mostly in Britain, do usually end up being busy so much such that they end up having little or no time for their children. Even to many, they take their children to boarding school at very early age or to baby care during the day. This causes the children not to experience the inner parental love and to feel lonely due to lack of parental love. Many of this children end up forwarding this hatred to their children or even developing hatred toward getting into family matters.
Socially, this causes many single children to grow and never get married or even children, a situation that is a problem as if it continues the human race is endangered(MIKE, Bergman, 2007).If the single parents tend to bring up their children with parental love and care, these children will grow up knowing that it is better to be a single parent than to be in a family where brawls are the order of the day. This causesthese single parents' children to end up being single parents and hence continuing the tradition which is being termed as a problem socially as it is against the traditions of many and the teachings of many religions in Britain(HETHERINGTON, Mavis, 1999).If the lone parenthood was caused by a divorce, in most situations, the parent bringing up the child end up telling the children many negative things about the other parent so that the child may not leave them for the other parent. At the end, the child does not only end up hating the other parent but he even hates all those people of the same sex with that parent. For instance, if the child was a girl staying with her mother, the mother end up telling her how men are bad, making the child believe this who end up hating and not trusting men from the society she is in.
This dilemma also occurs when the child is abandoned by one of the parents(BORNSTEIN, Marc, 2002).Another social problem caused by single parenthood is the increase in poverty level. Most single parents end up taking part time jobs or low paying jobs hence unable to provide food and basic needs to their children. Most of the time, this single parents are busy taking care of their children, hence ending up having little or no time go to work and hence help in reduction of poverty level in their societies and the whole country at large. Other times, the society use a lot of money trying to help those single parents that cannot cater for all their children's expenses, money that could be used to grow the economy of the country and reduce poverty level in other areas.
(RIDGE, Millar and, 2001).Single parenthood has effects on the education of the children. Foremost, lack of enough money to educate the children has led to many single parents opting for their children to drop out of school to help them in looking for money to cater for other basic needs. Other children are not able to learn well due to stress that comes along with the lone parenthood and also lack of learning materials(EMERY, Kelly and, 2003). Moreover, many of these parents are so busy that they have no time to look on how their children are performing in school or helping their children with assignments. This causes the children to end up not taking education seriously and eventually failing.
This is a social problem as it increases the number of illiterate people in Britain(HETHERRINGTON, Mavis, 1988).In many instances, the single parents with one child end up over protecting their children and finding it hard to punish them even if they wrong. This makes the children to engage in many bad behaviors as they are assured of no imminent danger from their parents. Eventually, they grow up to become criminals in society like engaging in prostitution, drugs, immoralityy and theft as no one has ever warned about it so it might be late for them to realize that they messed up with life.
May be if they were brought up by two parents, they could be different as probably the other parent would have assisted in offering advice to this particular child in advance. .Mostly in Britain, many children end up with their mothers being the single parent. Apart from this, there may arise prejudice and discrimination of the children living with single mums and even stress as other children enjoy them(WALKER, Lawrence J, 1997).
Mostly at school level, these children are usually the laughing stock of the class as other children enjoy them that they do not have the other parent. This causes these children to grow dormant socially and to go through a lot of stress that affect their growth socially. In the end, this affects the society at large as the child does not perform to their best and the child may end up being a bully as a protective mechanism(R, Amato P., 1999).Poor health is a social problem that can be caused by single parenthood. If the single parents have no enough money to cater for the health of the children, the children may end up deteriorating health wise a case that may lead to death(TAANILA, Anja, 2002).
Other parents have finances but they lack time to look on the health of their children many of this single parents end up buying food from restaurant which in most cases is full of cholesterol hence leading to the children becoming obese and unhealthy. The stress that the children go through, if the parents do not take action, the children go on increasing stress that causes great effects to their health(HUGHES, Robert, 2009).Early pregnancies and children becoming fathers when still young are problems that may be caused by the children being brought up by a single parent. Many of these children are not taught on use of contraceptives or how to avoid premarital sex. Most of them have a lot of free time with less supervision from the parents hence leading to them ending up engaging in sexual behaviors and being influenced by other peers to engage in sex at an early age. Many of them end up with STDs and HIV hence compromising their lives(THOMAS, Kathleen and, 1999).
Under this it is clear that one problem lead to other problems. Hence if this problem of single parenthood is dealt with, many other social problems will end. If children grow up knowing how to value life, take care and respect others and be given enough education, then they will grow up with dignity and focus. This may reduce the number of divorces, unwanted pregnancies and abandonment that occur in Britain. It is better to curb a problem when it is still young than when it is out of hand, hence, the government need to take action now before this goes out of reach.
