I saw a tidbit (well, all right, a two hundred page census report, but
given how big census reports are these days, it was a relative tidbit) 
that reminded me why I wanted to start this item.  The report was on
the marital status of adults in households with minor children (i.e.,
under eighteen... no puns, please).  The stats surprised me more than 
a little.  The most surprising:
1 out of 8 children living with a single parent live with the father
1 out of 7 children under 5 living with a parent who has never married
live with the father
35% of children in the second group living with their father live below
the poverty level.
Now, that's hardly even with the mothers (67% below the poverty line,
in the second group, and 7/8, 6/7 of children in each group), but the
media makes it seem like the issue is ENTIRELY one of single motherhood.
Roughly speaking, for every fifteen children who are under the age five,
living with a never-married mom, there is one child in the same situation 
with dad.
The work situation is even more telling.  Only 67% of women heading single
parent households are in the work force -- either working or ACTIVELY 
SEEKING work, while 90% of men in the same situation are (80% are 
employed, 10% are seeking, 10% are doing neither).  The travails of 
working single-parent moms should also apply to dads, but again this 
issue is ignored by the media (as far as I can tell).
I knew media unbalance existed in the arena of domestic abuse (abuse 
count in today's Detroit News:  on e case of implied husband-beating,
one case of overt psychological abuse by a wife to her husband, no
cases the other direction (although one ridiculing feminists).  BTW,
I'm not talking about the news stories.  I'm talking about the COMICS.)
I'm just shocked to learn it extends to parenting as well.

22 responses total.

I didn't bother to read the info above, did you?

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Then maybe I should read it, but I hate to read things if I don't like them.
I don't know if I like it

Then don't read it, Ryan.  You should never do anything you don't like.
;-)

But if you can convince me that I should read it, I will.

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I wrote it, so I feel that anybody who is interested should read it.  
But if you don't want to read it, I'm not going to force you or try to
coerce you.  My placing it here at all should be an indication of my 
estimation of its worth.

How old do you think I am? This is kind of a personal question.
How old are you?
     Don't lie!

15, I'd guess, Ryan, for you.
I'm 26.  
(Of course, I didn't ask the question.)

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You are very close.  I really am 16.  I will be 17 on November 13

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Everyone except my sister missed my birthday a while ago...heh

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sure popcorn.  You can put my birthday on the birthday-wisher if you want.

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Great!!!

valerie, can you put mine also in the list? it is the 24th december.

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Dad did it a while after being widowered in his mid-40's.  No fun even with
an awesome support network of extended family, neighbors, etc.  But he had
four kids and a job that involved a lot of travelling, so he wouldn't have
had a prayer otherwise.  I'd say that getting hitched ASAP to Mrs. Right II
was somewhere above the top of his priority list.

Single parenthood is no picnic and the plumbing you wear doesn't make 
much difference there.  (Maybe a little, if you take into account a 
slight tendency for people to make much of a man who takes any interest 
at all in his kids and the tendency for men to make more than women ... 
but still, not a picnic at all!)

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