To celebrate the fantastic job done by single mums this Mother’s Day, single parent charity, Gingerbread, has launched a myth-buster to show the reality of single parent life in 2012.
Today, one in four families is headed by a single parent, although as a proportion of families the number has stayed stable for the last ten years. Single parents are a big part of British family life, and yet a 2011 survey of Gingerbread members showed that 87% still think stigma against single parents needs to be challenged.
Key facts about single parents include:
- Single parents today have a median age of 38 (less than 2% are teenagers).
- 57% of all single parents are in work.
- Most people become single parents due to divorce, or other long term relationship breakdown.
- There are 186,000 single fathers – that’s about 8% of single parents.
Fiona Weir, Gingerbread chief executive, said: “If you’re raising children on your own, sometimes there isn’t anyone there to pat you on the back and say well done on Mother’s Day. By launching this fact file we are trying to do just that – and to show that the reality of single parents’ lives doesn’t match up to the stereotype – they are first and foremost parents, working hard to bring up their children well.”
