Single Parent Families In The United States

Words: 440
Pages: 2

Most of the families that make up the American society are nuclear. These types of families - mother, father, two or three children, and maybe even a dog - are always depicted on television as the norm. Single parent families are hardly ever shown in fiction or reality television. This is because single parent families are more susceptible to experience hardships than nuclear families. Single parent families experience poverty way more often than the average nuclear family, and tend to have a much harder time coming out of that poverty than nuclear families. Single parent families do not get nearly enough positive attention. In fact, single parent families hardly get any attention at all, for the main reason that most of these families are poor. There are approximately 11,667,000 families in the United States that are made up of one parent, as well as at least one child under the age of 18. 35.6 percent of those families are poor, and 27.5 percent of the parents that headed single parent families are jobless the entire year. (Single Mother Guide, 2017) This means that, of those over half of 12 million families, about 4,153,000 of them are in poverty. 3,208,000 of those parents are jobless the entire year. …show more content…
Single parents are more likely to want to take care of their child or children than taking a job, as the children in these families mostly have to fend for themselves. These kids get home from school and are alone. The parents of these families need to do everything they can to provide for their kids. The average income for a single mother that works is 35,400 dollars, whereas the average income for a married couple with children is 85,300 dollars. (Single Mother Statistics) That is a difference of approximately 49,900 dollars, nearly 50,000