Im Neal Conan. Allison Steen. ADEL: I find it true in Cub Scouts, as well. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. I stopped sharing my news and felt intensely sad when I watched married pregnant women put on a pedestal. Ms. POLS: It's funny - if the survey had said, for instance, instead of, you know, do you think that single mothers raising children without fathers or without male figures are bad for society? In terms of household financial status, single fathers are much better off than single mothers, and much worse off than married fathers. Some of these celebs'fathers passed away, while others simply left their families. You know, my son's father is, you know, he's in California. These are the constellations that usually make us feel supported and part of a larger community. And during that time, everybody that I met said: Well, you'll never get full custody. I want to be a better father, a better husband, a better man. No one could doubt that President Obama understood how much fathers mattered for their kids. Angelina Jolie's parents, Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, separated when the Mr. and Mrs. Smithactress was an infant. Obama decided not to return to Indonesia with his mother. Catch up on any essays, posts and In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment and Motherhood, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. No one not Professors Autor I devoted my life to being his mom. CONAN: And studies also suggest that it's the educational achievements of the mom, no matter what, how many parents there are in the family, the determining factor of how well their children are likely to do. Jolie was raised by her mother and she was estranged from her father for many years. Sometimes, parents are married, sometimes unmarried. Research like this has kept some influential thinkers and journalists on the left defending the scientific consensus about marriage, fatherhood, and family. Why Are So Many Young Men Single And Sexless? There are still nuclear families in America, but there are also unmarried parents, gay parents, families without children, and single parents. ALAN: Well, single fathers run into some of the same things that I've been hearing on the show, that, you know, just the way that you can actually do that by yourself, you know, without a woman around, in your case with a single mom, without a man around and so forth. Hes a better father than my father ever was.. Its the very definition of a vicious cycle, and anecdotes about personal experience or presidents raised by single mothers cant change the numbers or explain them. Although the Affordable Care Act will give more low-income single mothers access to health insurance, nearly half of these families reside in states that have declined to expand their Medicaid programs. But she said there's nothing to motivate you like needing to support a child, and so I took that on as sort of my mantra. Recently, Ms. McWilliams and I screened the film for teenagers at Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn. So today, we want to hear from single mothers. I'm often told what a good job I have done. She carried her chin a few degrees higher than most. In an interview for Guardian, Alicia highlighted her mother's strength. A new Pew Research poll asked Americans about these trends and found almost 70 percent believe that single women raising children on their own is bad for society. Mary Pols is a film reviewer and author. Poverty is also linked with single fatherhood: More than one-third (36%) of fathers who are living at or below the poverty line are single parents. So the next time you come across a study from Harvard or some other ivory tower academic trying to cast shade on the idea that fathers matter for kids, youd be better off just reprising the wisdom articulated by our 44th president on this matter for Fathers Day in 2008, which is as relevant for Fathers Day in 2021: Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important We know the statistics that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And millennials will make up 21% of the voting-eligible population in 2020. But the evidence, when viewed objectively, points strongly to the value of two-parent households., Jason Sattler:What a new dad learned in COVID lockdown about politics, responsibility and 'women's work'. "She believed that he deserved the kind of opportunities that she had had [like] the opportunity to a great university," Scott says. Causation is unclear, but correlation isnt: over all, men and boys are struggling in a changed environment. CONAN: And this survey, well, it's a little complicated. In 1970, 31 percent of single-mother families were black, 68 percent were white, and 1 percent were "other race." In 2013, the figures were 30 percent black, 62 percent white, and 8 percent "other." Readers should bear in mind that the terms "unmarried . Though a small percentage, they represent more than 90% of all TANF families. And it seemed to me, as I looked at the survey, the most interesting result was that a great majority of the skeptics were very tolerant of all those other things - interracial marriage, gay couples raising parents, that sort of thing - but they were among those who found problems with single motherhood. Overall, two-thirds (67%) of households with children are headed by two married parents; in 1960, this share was 92%.4. And then there was part of me that thought: Well, this man has been sort of my friend and mentor, in a way, as my boss, and maybe he just wants to have a conversation. The majority of the 11 million single-parent families in the United States are headed by single mothers, . That's at npr.org. From academia to the policy world, most sensible people acknowledged the importance of strong and stable families for kids. WATCH LIVE: Merrick Garland testifies before Senate Judiciary Committee, The Left's utopian open border policies are unsustainable, No bail and no brains: Seattle judge releases accused mass shooter. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. CONAN: I think that's what the survey was trying to find out. KEVIN RUDD: Kevin Rudd's mother Margaret was forced to raise the family as a single parent after his Dad Bert died in a car accident when he was 11 years old. ", The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. Four years later, Obama moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents while his mother stayed in Indonesia with her second husband and daughter Maya Soetoro-Ng. Absolutely NOT! It was in Hawaii that she met a Kenyan student named Barack Obama. And it seemed so clear. CONAN: All right, Alan, thanks very much for the call. Theres only one problem with this revisionist effort that relies on cherry picking a few findings to fit its narrative: it obscures the full truth from the sciences about the importance of two-parent families for kids. 2. CONAN: Those mothers - and I hate to lump them all into a category - but would you say that they were all financially challenged as well? A growing share of lower-income children are raised by their mother but not their father, and research shows that those children are at a particular About half (52%) are separated, divorced, widowed or never married and are living without a cohabiting partner; some (41%) are living with a non-marital partner; and a small share (7%) are married but living apart from their spouse.3. I was in quarantine on campus. But they draw a line in the sand when it comes to single motherhood. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Hailing from the Ivory Tower in 2015, scholars from Brookings and Princeton reported on the new scientific consensus: most scholars now agree that children raised by two biological parents in a stable marriage do better than children in other family forms across a wide range of outcomes.. I think that it's telling that the question didn't get asked of men raising children by themselves. The American family looks a little different now than it did in the days of Ward and June Cleaver. I was very careful about dating and so forth until she was like a senior in high school because my main concern was to be a good father. In 2008, 1.7 million. Because of a variety of circumstances . That's five years before he becomes a community development person in Chicago.". Worse, simplistic statistics can feed unfound prejudice and fear. So I had a very strong, established network. CONAN: And I wonder: Do you see these attitudes portrayed amongst the people in your life? In fact, it dates back our first president, George Washington to President Obama. I combed through tattered field notebooks, boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, photo albums, the archives of the Ford Foundation in Midtown Manhattan, and the thousand-page thesis that took Dunham fifteen years to complete. These roles and role models have shaped this Democratic team as empathetic leaders. The hit was felt even harder for the lowest wage single moms who work in service jobs. That's really irritating, and it's so not true of what we're feeling out here in the world. Cohabiting single fathers are particularly disadvantaged on most socio-economic indicators. So - but for me, it's been a very good and very positive experience, and, you know, I read something like this Pew study, and I think, as do I think a lot of my single-mother friends: Oh, that's so annoying. Some couples don't have children at all. I'm going to be with him. We as a society can do better for children raised by single mothers and for families headed by single parents in general. I mean, some of their husbands have passed away. He underlined the value of fathers for kids and his own dedication to breaking the cycle of fatherlessness he experienced as a boy. So you're going to register? Teresa Augello raised Alicia all by herself in the chaotic streets of Hell's Kitchen in New York City and taught her how to be empathetic and kind. Roughly two thirds received free or reduced-price meals. Ones that come to mind would be Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover (completely orphaned at around age 9, somewhat raised by an uncle), Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton to some extent, Barack Obama mostly, and probably some of the 19th Century Presidents but I don't know enough about. These along with less generous safety net programs and wage inequality among women help explain the exceptionally high poverty rate for single mother families in the U.S. 2023 SMG. No matter how you cut it ." Kamala Harris has also said that her mother, divorced and single, was her primary role model. PAIGE: This is very interesting to me, just from a sociological perspective and being a budding sociologist in school right now and raising two children, two teenagers as a single mother. The Motherlode blog has a weekly email. One thing that we don't want to do is attempt to demonize single mothers or necessarily demonize the American public. Vicky Waltz. Ms. POLS: But - so I do think there is a - there's just - there is a problem. And honestly, I think that's part of the reason we tend to gravitate to each other. Public opinion ascribes roughly the same hierarchy of roles to mothers. Mr. MORAN: Good question. Fatherless boys inevitably suffer delinquent tendencies. What if it had said, you know, are absentee fathers good for society or bad for society? In 1972, Scott says, Dunham rejoined her son in Hawaii and stayed there during his middle school years. Among fathers living without a spouse or partner, the comparable median household income is a bit higher at $43,000. Famous Men You'd Want To Have A Beer With, The 50+ Most Beautiful Influencers Of 2023. Without financial aid, single mother students have little or no means to contribute financially to their educational expenses. It was impossible not to be struck forcefully by the similarities, and the dissimilarities, between them. Some 27% of fathers under the age of 30 are single fathers, and most of these are cohabiting. Email us, talk@npr.org. These educational differences likely reflect, in part, the relative youthfulness of cohabiters. Join us to talk about education, child care, mealtime, sports, technology, the work-family balance and much more. 1 Nearly two-thirds were born to mothers under the age of 30. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. A record 8% of households with minor children in the United States are headed by a single father, up from just over 1% in 1960, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Decennial Census and American Community Survey data. Of course he was referring to his favorite subject himself as if he'd blazed a new trail of opportunity. But first, Rich Moran, senior editor at the Pew Research Center, joins us today from their offices in Washington. Sometimes dads have - kids have two dads. They gave me a bag lunch and little help. January 17, 2007. Some parents raise kids alone. She returned to Indonesia to do anthropological field work shortly after he entered high school. I wish I were able to count on someone else to make dinner, brush the kids' teeth, put them to bed, et cetera. His father didn't abandon his family, but Clinton never met his father. And 18% of fathers living with no spouse or partner are Hispanic, while fully one-third (33%) of cohabiting fathers are. And on most of these issues, in fact all but single motherhood, they're very accepting, very tolerant of changes. And as you know, studies suggest the children pay the price. George Washington's mother, Mary, became a widow when he was 11. The woman was Stanley Ann Dunham, his mother. You're in a very fortunate situation, and you are lucky, as is your son. When we come back, we'll bring you an update on Libya. And when I - you know, when I heard the Pew Institute study that single motherhood is bad for society, I found that statement really problematic as though it's the mother's fault. And, I don't know, I'm wondering if the gentleman could say something about that aspect and the way that people do view women in our culture and that maybe they don't believe that women are capable of raising children on their own to be productive members of society or counter-culture. CONAN: Adel, thanks very much for the call, appreciate it. Will Democrats and Big Tech ever apologize? How do people treat you? I got it. CONAN: Well, the protective one too, as well as Ms. POLS: Yeah. Ms. McWilliams begins the film with her own pregnancy and fearlessly records her. Is there some ostracism? In 1960, Dunham's family moved to Hawaii, where she enrolled in college. 3 Miracles Of Children Raised by Single Mothers 1. Growing up in ideal circumstances doesnt guarantee happiness. Director Daphne McWilliams bravely explores the health and hardiness of men raised by single mothers. (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax off: They have the highest poverty rate. Reviewed by Ekua Hagan. 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