Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Study shows that single mothers are not intrinsically worse parents than mothers who live with their children's partner
I'm probably being over-sensitive, but I find the premises behind studies like this one slightly insulting. In this case, however, the researchers in this study obviously avoided blind prejudice against single parents and found that, although working single mothers "on average, spend between three and five hours less time per week on child care than married mothers"... "The reduced amount of time single mothers spend on child care are accounted for by differences in available resources – type and hours of employment, education, maternal age, age of children. When these factors are statistically controlled, the differences disappear." I guess this confirms what single parents and our families, friends and colleagues already knew... that what we give up most when we parent alone, is not time spent with our kids... we prioritise that... but time to ourselves, sleep and self-care, and that extra mile at work. The conclusion of the study was that "public policy needs to pay greater attention to the resources and educational opportunities for mothers, regardless of their marital status." And I really can't argue with that!!
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