From there, I think I quit viewing my education just in terms of how it was going to translate into dollars. Relocating to Atlanta shortly after graduation, she was quickly able to line up free-lance work writing advertising and public relations copy. The book gave rise to her conducting single-parenting seminars. That, in turn, increased her interest in family issues, prompting her to pursue her master's degree, which eventually led to her new career as a divorce mediator. Today, she tells her children, Laura, now 16, and Justin, who turns 15 this month, not to even think about getting married before college.
College is a great place for self-discovery.
Shearer's parting advice for single parents is that they should ignore stereotypes and take pride in being single parents. At first that was something Shearer herself found difficult to do. She had been raised with very traditional values that told her that a two-parent family was not only the norm but also the ideal. And even when it is possible, things don't always turn out ideally. Seldom do stories based on such statistics point out that the statistics are influenced by additional factors, such as a family's economic level, and not solely by whether a child was raised in a single-parent home.