Over the past few decades, the ideologies and traditions of raising a family has changed. Families that once consisted of a hard-working father and a stay-at-home mother now consist of one parent trying to multitask the duties of two parents.
In this generation, the sole provider has been mothers. Mothers have been forced to take on the responsibility of raising children on their own without the help of the fathers.
In the 20th century, it was typical for children to be raised in a home that consisted of both the mother and the father. The father was the backbone of the family as well as the financial provider, leaving the mother to be the nurturer.
The mother took care of the children by grooming them, preparing dinner every night as well as breakfast every morning, and much more.
Fast-forwarding to the beginning of the 21st century, it has become atypical for both parents to be in the home. Mothers are taking on the responsibilities of the fathers and carry the burden of not having the help that they need.
Being a single mother is not only a physical, financial and emotional burden for the mother but also for the child.
Single mothers have been stereotyped as being incapable of raising a child alone, possibly not knowing who the father is to begin with and being another product of their environment.
There have also been misrepresentations of single mothers that feed into the stereotypes of single mothers such as shows like 16 and Pregnant and the infamous Maury Povich.
Putting aside stereotypes and drama-filled DNA result confirmations, children are deeply affected by being raised by a single parent.
Today’s youth are being raised by single mothers who don’t have the extra time to spend with their children because of work. Because the mothers have a multitude of things to do to provide for the children in most cases the child is at home without the extra support to keep them on track.
Along with the changes in motherhood, the generation of children has changed not only because of lack of structure, but also because of new outside forces such as technology, music and growing issues with peer pressure and low self-esteem.
With the changes of the generation brings more challenges for mothers who have to handle everything on their own. As long as there is an empty space where the father should be, there will always be an outside force to penetrate the mind of children who only have single mothers to rely on.
