"Survey dispels myth of failing single parents" is a text about the ups and downs of being a single parent. Penny Turner, a single mother, tells about the pros and cons of raising a child by yourself, and for her the pros are far bigger then the cons. She loves that she can make every decision herself, and that her child isn't caught in a conflict between to parents. She also takes the cons and turns them to pros. She is for example tired of the fact that they can't go on vacation as often as she like to. On the contrary she can teach her son that money doesn't grow on trees, and that he has to work for things in his life. Another woman tells about how when her boyfriend had taken her child to him, as it was his own, but left after nine months. She tells about how her daughter changed completely for the best when she got her mother undivided attention. .
Being a single parent can be really tough, and lonely at times, but as presented in the three texts, the positive sides are far bigger than the negative ones. When you raise a child on your own then you can imprint them in exactly the way you want to. You don't always have to go to someone else to ask, "is it okay if she does this", and "He did this again. What should we do?" and so on. It's your own opinion that matters, and that relieves a lot of pressure on the parent. On the contrary the child will grow up missing either a father or mother figure. Money is also tight when you have to live of one income. You don't get the financial stability that to parented families has. It can also get very lonely and you might "loose yourself" at some points in your life where you forget to do things for yourself, or what your favorite music is. .
It might be a relief for a parent to be able to make every decision by him or herself, but that also means that only one parent will imprint that child. That means that the child's views on certain things almost only will be from one person.