The first handbook for the paoidly growing number of American women choosing single motherhood, written by the director of the national organization, Single Mothers by Choice.

The comprehensive guide for single women interested in proactively becoming a mother--includes the essential tools needed to decide whether to take this step, information on how best to follow through, and insight about answering the child's questions and needs over time. Choosing Single Motherhood, written by a longtime journalist and Choice Mother (a woman who chooses to conceive or adopt without a life partner), will become the indispensable tool for women looking for both support and insight. Based on extensive up-to-date research, advice from child experts and family therapists, as well as interviews with more than one hundred single women, this book explores common questions and concerns of women facing this decision, including: - Can I afford to do this? - Should I wait longer to see if life turns a new corner? - How do Choice Mothers handle the stress of solo parenting? - What the research says about growing up in a single-parent household - How to answer a child's "daddy" questions - The facts about adoption, anonymous donor insemination, and finding a known donor - How the children of pioneering Choice Mothers feel about their lives Written in a lively style that never sugarcoats or sweeps problems under the rug, Choosing Single Motherhood covers the topic clearly, concisely, and with a great deal of heart.

How can a single mother provide her son with the strength and wisdom most boys receive from their fathers? How will her son learn to be a good man without a healthy male influence around?In today’s world, many women--single mothers, grandmothers, even military wives--are left with the responsibility of raising children on their own. Being a single parent comes with many challenges, but for women one of the most difficult is to raise sons to be strong men and good fathers without a healthy male role model in the home. In Single Moms Raising Sons, Dana Serrano Chisholm speaks from her own experience as a single mother of two boys and inspires other single moms to partner with God--the Father of the fatherless. She teaches them to find strength and wisdom as they allow Christ to be their partner in very real ways--helping them raise their children.From financial concerns to passing on macho, Single Moms Raising Sons supplies honest insight, unifying encouragement, and practical applications to guide mothers as they raise their boys to be the solid, Christian men they want them to be.

Happy Together, a single mother by choice story, is a heartwarming book to help share the family building story with a young child. A story told through clear language and cheerful illustrations, readers will join Mommy bear on the journey to fulfill her greatest wish of becoming a parent. With help from a doctor and a donor, Mommy's dream came true and a baby was welcomed with great joy!

"Being young and naive, Shay was put in many challenging situations. Shay went from being the "good girl" to becoming a young mother with a man that only cared about one thing, and that was getting money. Being young and struggling to take care of her child needs while being left to raise her child alone was hard to cope with. So she quickly turned to drinking alcohol, partying and seeking attention from en to help relieve her stress. Shay knew the life she was living could only get worse if she continued at the rate she was going. She wanted to change but just didn't know how. Will Shay continue to go down the wrong path or will she prevail through all the obstacles thrown her way?"--Back cover.

Your best resource now completely revised and updated! Being a single mother isn't easy--but with The Complete Single Mother, Third Edition, it just got easier. Long the most popular source of encouragement and advice for single moms, this engaging, enlightening guide explores such important issues as: Finances Dealing with the absent father Custody Dating and remarriage With a new chapter devoted to children with special needs, as well as inspirational sidebars about famous single mothers, this updated classic is the supportive, one-stop handbook you'll turn to again and again!

Long perceived as the ultimate symbol of social breakdown and sexual irresponsibility, the single mother is now, in the context of welfare-to-work policies, often hailed as the new spokesperson for hard work and self-sufficiency. A dozen years after Dan Quayle denounced the television character Murphy Brown for making the decision to become a single mother “just another lifestyle choice,” President George W. Bush applauded single mothers for “heroic work,” and positive on-screen representations of single mothers abound, from The Gilmore Girls to Sex and the City to American Idol. Single Mother describes the recent cultural valorization of this figure that—in the midst of demographic changes in the U.S.—has emerged as the unlikely heroic and seductive voice of the new American family. Drawing on her own life as a single mother, interviews with dozens of other single mothers, cultural representations, and policies on welfare, immigration, childcare, and child custody, Juffer analyzes this contingent acceptance of single mothers. Finally, critiquing the relentless emphasis on self-sufficiency to the exclusion of community, Juffer shows the remarkable organizing skills of these new mothers of invention. At a moment when one-third of all babies are born to single moms, Single Mother is a fascinating and necessary examination of these new “domestic intellectuals.”