Single Parents Come in Three Distinct Stages
Category: How-to parenting tips
As single parents navigate parenting by themselves, they go through definite stages. These stages can be grouped into three distinct phases-surviving, transitioning and emerging.
By Linda Ranson Jacobs
www.dc4k.org/parentzone
Over the past several years I have had the honor of watching single parents try to parent alone in a very complex world. At first I watched from the sidelines thinking, "I am so glad that's not me. I don't have to be in their shoes." Don't get me wrong: I prayed for them, but I didn't understand them. I had sympathy for single parents, but I didn't have empathy. Actually I had a rather self-righteous attitude about the whole single parenting thing. It was sad if you were parenting alone due to a death. But the whole divorce and never-married scene wasn't within my realm of comprehension. Then one day I woke to find myself parenting alone.
As I strived to make sense of my world and my life, I began to empathize with every single parent I'd ever known. I have lived it, and I have walked with many others through the troubling times of parenting alone. In my observations I have developed a theory about single parents. As single parents navigate parenting by themselves, they go through definite stages. I believe these stages can be grouped into three distinct phases-surviving, transitioning and emerging.
For more on Stage One: The Surviving Stage, go to www.dc4k.org/parentzone. Click on "ParentZone Library." Click on "Single Parents Come in Three Stages, Stage 1."
© MMV by the author and/or Church Initiative. All rights reserved. Reproducible when used in conjunction with a DivorceCare or DC4K ministry.
Linda Ranson Jacobs created and developed the DivorceCare for Kids program.
To find out more about DivorceCare for Kids or to find a group near you, go to www.dc4k.org.