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Burdens of the Single Mother

Single mothers struggle with many social conflicts and psychological problems for profound reasons that prevent them from achieving self-sufficiency and a good relationship. .
             There is much misinformation about a single mothers willingness to work. Many individuals assume that poor single mothers choose to voluntarily not work purely for the reason of laziness or lack of motivation. This myth may stem from the unintentional dissemination of hyperbole or even misinformation through the media such as in the movie Precious. In the movie, during one of the most notable and dramatic quotable scenes, the protagonists mother who watches television all day tells the protagonist that basically education will not help much and to take her butt down to the welfare office. Other highly publicized reports, such as the single mother who recently won the lottery and was still receiving unemployment benefits to the dismay of much of the taxpayers in her state, only represent a minority among working mothers and reinforce the negative stereotypes of the single mother receiving welfare and government assistance. But only two decades ago federal welfare reform legislation replaced the entitlement program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (pg. 728, Scott, London, Edin) which essentially shifts welfare and government assistance of income to include working restrictions and limitations in the extent of time to which they will remain valid. In the face of this change, women remain still at a disadvantage because they will still only have access to jobs without benefits, which will not help them to live without substantial support from outside resources or advance their position financially. Far from the assumption that single mothers laze around and therefore must end up feeling devastated by this change, many women felt a necessity about not having to rely on welfare and government assistance.


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