Keys to Single Parenting

Carl E.Pickhardt

As any single parent will tell you, life is not easy when you are bringing up a child on your own. Keep in mind, too, that ‘single parent’ does not always mean a parent after a divorce, but covers widowed and abandoned men and women too.

Carl E. Pickhardt does not look upon the high incidence of single parenthood as a social problem to be solved, but as a social reality to be addressed helpfully. He examines the difficulty for many parents of adjusting to single parent life and status. And he rightly points out that it is at this stressful time that the child needs even more care from the resident parent.

If you are a single parent wondering what life is going to be like, then you will gather a great deal of information from this book. If you want to read more about helping your child - the ‘only’ or the ‘adolescent’, for example, then there are plenty of tips and guidelines here. There are thoughts about dating (for you and them!) And how to talk to your child about drugs, alcohol and sex.

I am not sure I like the term ‘custodial parent’; I would have preferred ‘resident parent’, but this is not a newly published book and maybe that was the term in use a few years ago. However, although the resources in the book are somewhat limited, if you are about to become a single parent, or you are one already one who is struggling, you will find this book helpful and supportive. And underpinning and backup are often the very thing which a single parent craves.

© Jill Curtis 2002

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