by Destiny Cendejas
Did you know that a lot of women get divorced after having a baby? One of the reasons women are divorced is because many people don’t want the responsibility to take care of a child and decide to leave.
According to singlemotherguide.com, ”49% women are never married and 1 in 4 under age children- a total of 17.2 million- are being raised without fathers.” 70% of colored children are born to an unmarried mother and 35.6% of these mothers were jobless or poor.
My cousin, Ana Alvarez, is a 24 year old single mother. She has two girls, one at the age of eight and the other is five years old. She had problems in the past with the father of her children. After the father left her, she was struggling with money and didn’t have many people to rely on.
Her family disowned her for a couple of months and she had to stay with my family until we convinced her family to accept her decisions. Ana said, “I made the biggest mistake. My mistake was relying on the father to help me pay the bills.”
It affected her life in a good way. She’s never been happier. In Anna's point of view, you don’t need a partner to be happy. Find a good job and your life will be complete.
Brenda Sanchez is a 18 year old single mother and has two children- one boy at the age of two and one girl that is one week old. Brenda had problems with her partner and they decided not to see each other. The father didn’t want anything to do with the children once he found out about the second child.
Their family was really supportive even if she got pregnant at a young age. Brenda didn’t struggle with money because she had her parents to help her out.
"Life can be difficult at first with a child at a young age, but it will get better if you have the support of your family or someone that is important to you. Never say that the baby was a mistake because he/she wasn't. It just helped you open your eyes,” says Brenda.
According to washingtonpost.com, ”the average cost of raising a child born up until age 18 is approximately $245,340 to $304,480.“ In 2012, 28% of U.S children lived with one parent and 4.24 million single mothers lived below the poverty line.
According to singlemotherguide.com, ”49% women are never married and 1 in 4 under age children- a total of 17.2 million- are being raised without fathers.” 70% of colored children are born to an unmarried mother and 35.6% of these mothers were jobless or poor.
My cousin, Ana Alvarez, is a 24 year old single mother. She has two girls, one at the age of eight and the other is five years old. She had problems in the past with the father of her children. After the father left her, she was struggling with money and didn’t have many people to rely on.
Her family disowned her for a couple of months and she had to stay with my family until we convinced her family to accept her decisions. Ana said, “I made the biggest mistake. My mistake was relying on the father to help me pay the bills.”
It affected her life in a good way. She’s never been happier. In Anna's point of view, you don’t need a partner to be happy. Find a good job and your life will be complete.
Brenda Sanchez is a 18 year old single mother and has two children- one boy at the age of two and one girl that is one week old. Brenda had problems with her partner and they decided not to see each other. The father didn’t want anything to do with the children once he found out about the second child.
Their family was really supportive even if she got pregnant at a young age. Brenda didn’t struggle with money because she had her parents to help her out.
"Life can be difficult at first with a child at a young age, but it will get better if you have the support of your family or someone that is important to you. Never say that the baby was a mistake because he/she wasn't. It just helped you open your eyes,” says Brenda.
According to washingtonpost.com, ”the average cost of raising a child born up until age 18 is approximately $245,340 to $304,480.“ In 2012, 28% of U.S children lived with one parent and 4.24 million single mothers lived below the poverty line.