Grandmothers and aunts often are tapped into service when birth mothers get into drug and criminal trouble. While that's a growing trend, it is not considered statistically significant. At the same time, social changes have lessened the stigma against women giving birth out of wedlock. More career women have adopted children, too, Stanley said. More often than not, though, children being raised by single women are poor.
More single mothers means more poor women.
Mata struggles to make ends meet. She has a third son now, by another boyfriend who helps out with babysitting on weekends. A good cook, she is able to stretch the grocery money a long way by making everything from scratch and serving few commercially prepared foods. Like Mata, Charles isn't from Florida, either. Many times, she, too, has worked seven days a week without a day off.