Single mother households are the fastest growing family group in Australia – through separation and divorce, widowhood and the increasing number of single mothers by choice. More than 70% of these families are led by women.
Being a single mother used to come with a definitive stigma. They were looked down upon, pitied and. At worst, cast out and excluded.
It wasn’t so long ago that women who had babies ‘out of wedlock’ or ended up divorced were seen as ‘fallen women’, their children from ‘broken homes’.
The stigma still lingers, and it can be tough-going being a single parent. But the face of single motherhood has changed. Though single motherhood can be arduous, lonely and totally overwhelming, it can also be liberating. Not just adapting to your ‘new normal’ but wholeheartedly embracing it. No matter how you arrived here – separated or divorced, widowed or single mother by choice, what if you saw your circumstances as an opportunity for new beginnings, a call to step up in ways you never thought possible?
Single mothers these days have the opportunity to live an empowered, strong and loving life. They regard raising children on their own – whatever their circumstances – as a privilege and an opportunity to grow. Jacinta Tyan has interviewed numerous experts and other solo parents to share the best advice for thriving when you have to manage parenting on your own.
The Single Moher’s Social Club is the first book of its kind celebrating single mothers while offering expert advice and wisdom. We hope this book and Jacinta’s research will help to shift this single mother stereotype by presenting these women as they are – empowered and content, who’ve made considered life choices to improve their lives and those of their children.
In The Single Mother’s Social Club, columnist and newsreader Jacinta Tynan interviews experts and other solo parents to share the best advice for thriving when you have to manage parenting on your own, along with her own experiences of making it as a single mum.
Release date 2 July