Does Being a Single Parent Interfere With the Ability to be a Good Parent? - Answer

When I was doing my preliminary research, many people said that single parents are bad for children, and there was one video in particular that I watched which compared single parenting to child abuse. However, I don't believe that all single parents are bad. There are toxic two-parent families as well as bad single parents, so why do people never bring up the fact that two parent families aren't always perfect?

In the video, "Why are single parents bad," Danielle said that the actions of children aren't necessarily the parent's fault. Yes, they do give children a foundation, but it is up to them to build their own life and make their own decisions. For example, a child could grow up with the perfect nuclear family surrounding them and still do drugs or end up in jail someday. Everyday there a parents that tell their kids to eat their vegetables at dinnertime, and it doesn't change the fact that they don't want to eat them. Children are their own people with their own personalities, and we can't say that just because they were raised by a single parent that they will be unsuccessful in life, and with their relationships. They are ultimately capable of making their own decisions and we shouldn't be telling them that they are doomed to live a life of misery just because of how they were brought up.

I also read in an article that parents can adopt paternal and maternal parenting styles, because our expectations of gender are now evolving. If a single parent is able to do this, their child will grow up the the "balance" that everyone mentions when they talk about single parents. Even if single parents don't do this, they still have the ability to. In the end it all comes down to choices. And I believe that being a single parent does interfere with the ability to be a good parent, but only because of what society is currently saying, and single parents and their children are pressured to believe that it is true. It does interfere with the ability to be a good parent, but so do many other factors, and that doesn't necessarily make them a bad parent.