Single-parent families are becoming common by the day. These families take all sorts of form; from ones headed by fathers or mothers to ones headed by grandparents or even relatives of the children such as a person raising her nephew alone. Life in such a household is often stressful to both the parent and the children as well. Following are some of the single parenting issues faced by these households.

Establishing a work-life balance

At times your company’s working culture may prove to be stressful such that you find yourself working when you should be at home with your children. In a normal family, the father and mother could work in turns to look for their family such that when one is working the other is at home; however, for a single parent this is impossible. Things like taking your child to and from school when you should be working are stressful. To make the situation better, it is advisable to establish a routine which ensures the child knows what to expect even though it is not enough.

Quality of parenting

Research has shown that many single parents face difficulties in functioning properly as parents. These parents are often less supportive to their children emotionally, are harsher disciplinants and the discipline is dispensed inconsistently, supervise their children less and often conflict with their children. These deficits are as a result of the parent’s struggle to make ends meet. Such quality of parenting lead to poor results of their children in school, emotional imbalance of the children as well as low self-esteem which make it difficult to form and maintain social relationships.

Exposure to stress

Children raised by single parents are exposed to more stress than their counterparts in normal families. The condition is made worse if there is a conflict between the resident and non-resident parent. Such a conflict often puts the children in the middle more so when one parent disrespects the other before the children or tries to recruit the children against the other.

Visitations and custody problems

This is another issue that faces many single parent families e.g. in a case where the parents are having custody and visitation problems such that the court bars one parent from visiting the children. This makes the children unable to contact one of their parents leading to a host of problems such as emotional imbalance, poor performance or even low self-esteem.

Though some find single-parenthood rewarding, for most as studies have shown, it is a ride full of many potholes.