how do you define 'single mom'?

Updated May 17, 2019 Below, you will find a polite, academic picking-apart of the who-gets-to-call-themselves-a-single-mom debate. It rages on, constantly, and after 7 years of blogging about single moms (and being one myself for 9 years), I have come to this conclusion: The argument about who is, and who is not a single mom is…

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Alimony hurts gender equality and holds women back.

I blindly grew up and into my 30s assuming the standard-issue feminist party line: Women’s work is uncompensated and undervalued. When women become stay-at-home mothers, that benefits men’s careers, and when the marriage ends, she should be compensated for that lost earning potential. Both partners’ lifestyles should be the same when the marriage ends! Then,…

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single mom disabled child dating love lonely

While the numbers are not confirmed, experts agree that divorce rates among parents with special needs children is far higher than the general population. And since single moms of special needs kids have challenges and joys that other moms  — single or otherwise  — do not. Kim Thompson, a single mom of two boys, ages…

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teach kids about money tips

In my day, even if your parents didn’t explicitly teach you about personal finance, money lessons were inherent to life: Allowance for kids and babysitting jobs were paid in cash. Savings accounts meant coins and wadded-up singles deposited into piggy banks and the local bank branch. Charity meant writing a paper check (remember those?!) to…

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single mom celebrate fathers day

Plenty of memes going around Facebook giving Father’s Day shout-outs to single moms who “do it all.” Make your way down the card isle and you will come across Hallmark’s cards, they have a half-dozen designed celebrating moms on this day. Cards read: “Happy Father’s Day, Mom!” “Mom: You’re the best! Thanks for being both…

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shared-parenting

First, let’s establish this right away: Shared parenting isn’t right for families where one parent struggles with addiction, there is a history of violence or abuse, or severe mental illness. As of April, 2018 Kentucky became the first state in the country with a “legal presumption” for joint custody in divorce proceedings. That means that when you…

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Readers are leaders! Whatever your single-mom related questions, issues, joys or challenges are, there is a single mom book for it. In fact, I wrote a book for you, too! Here is my list of vetted titles of books for single mothers, designed for you in whatever state of your journey, in no particular order……

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helicopter parent finance

Plenty has been written about the drastic downside of helicopter parenting — or the practice of hovering over our children, protecting them from every discomfort and failure, that they grow up to be incompetent, anxious adults with a sense of entitlement so crippling it stands to undo our economy (sorry to blame you for everything,…

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Dr. Susan O'Malley

Other ways to listen: iTunes  ♦  Stitcher   ♦  TuneIn   ♦  SoundCloud ♦  Google Play Dr. Susan O’Malley is pretty awesome. With her thick New York accent, this lifelong underachiever, secretary with no more than a high school diploma, set out at age 30 to become a physician. She did it. In this interview, I interview this amazing, charming woman who…

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parental alienation syndrome

I have written extensively on the importance of the movement towards shared parenting. There are 55-peer reviewed studies that prove that shared parenting is best for children in separated and divorced families — when time is split approximately equally between homes — including in high-conflict situations. Very closely related is the recognition by courts and mental health…

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