I m not blaming dads, either. Men or women raising children on their own have my respect. They re doing a difficult job, often well. They need and deserve all the support we as individuals and society can give them, but they are not the concern here. This message is for people who haven t yet produced a child, people who have a choice of whether or not to parent alone.
Babies begin with a sexual act.
Unfortunately, if people don t choose abstinence or birth control, nature chooses for them and baby is on the way, whether mom and dad are ready or not. According to a recent publication, children who do not live with their biological fathers are five times more likely to be poor than are children in a two-parent family. They are more likely to abuse drugs and drop out of school, and twice as likely to end up in jail. About half of American marriages, many of them involving children, end in divorce. Unlike children of divorce who typically have a tie with their fathers, most children born to unwed mothers have no connection to their fathers after the parents split up.