Single-parenting-reasons

 

Single-parent families as those in which there is a single parent, father or mother, raising his or her own children.

A single-parent family may get established because of the permanent absence of a parent from home due to death, divorce, separation, desertion, even unwed motherhood, or because of temporary absence as, for instance, due to migration for employment, and imprisonment for long periods of time. In India, the death of a parent is the most likely cause of single-parent family, followed by divorce and separation.

Some of the more recent causes leading to single paretning include adoption by those who are unmarried. Some women choose to be single parents via surrogacy. Although relatively small, growing numbers of women in developed countries, especially those who are professional and older, are becoming single mothers by choice. Concerned about their reproductive clock ticking and the lack of a suitable partner, some of those single women have turned to sperm donors in order to have a baby and establish a family.

It is important to note that a woman having a non-marital birth does not necessarily translate into a single-parent household. Often non-marital births occur to cohabiting couples. This is seen in quite a few Western countries. In Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United States, for example, more than half of non-marital births are to women in cohabiting relationships.