Ann Coulter's recent comment on single motherhood, blaming most of today's problems on this social phenomenon caused quite a stir. Although I have seen her on several TV shows, this quote from WashingtonPost.com seems the most descriptive about what she wrote in her latest hype-stirring creation "The strongest predictor of whether a person will end up in prison is that he was raised by a single parent," she writes.
She says no wonder kids of single Moms turn out to be strippers. Not so fast Miss Coulter. I was raised by a single Mom and never did it ever occur to me to become the stripper. First of all if you claim that the problem is so vast, how many srippers are there in any given city? Just kidding. I understand her analogy to the problem teenagers and young adults emerging from single-parent homes. The truth is, however, that the single or not parent homes produce offspring whose accomplishments can be measured by various rates of success. My friends who are single Moms, and myself at one-time in my life, are dedicated parents who do everything in our power to better the lives of our children. We certainly are not strippers and our mothers to the best of my knowledge have never been strippers nor do our children have any inclination of becoming strippers. Furthemore, I know plenty of double parent households that produced difficult teenagers and failing adults. To name a few extremes, remember serial killer and man-eater "Jeffrey Dahmer? Raised by two parents. Columbine's Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold? Both raised in two-parent households. Clearly, just having two parents doesn't create the utopian society Coulter thinks it will." Interestingly, she herself is not nor ever has been a parent.
Look, I know in my heart of hearts that even talking about what this woman is saying helps her publicity to sell more books. I just feel that leaving this as is would not give it much justice either. So do me a favor, when you see her book, act as if there is a restraining order on it, and do not come within ten feet of it.
I was a single Mom at one time for twelve years, and my son, as I am happy to report is doing great in college, graduating in May, works for his school as a director, had already interned with several technology and other companies and has offers pouring in even in this hard economy.
I realize that there are examples of both the successful and failed like in anything else, life is not perfect, and perhaps that is what makes our human experience so fascinating. However to blame this on someone in under priviledged circumstances is purely evil. Know Ms. Coulter that most of single mothers out there have not chosen their lives' circumstances to be such. Not many of us sat there dreaming that one day we would be the mother and the father and provide solely for our children. Not everything is the stuff of dreams. All we can do is try.
I have recognized the problem of single mother homes but in a vastly different light. Because families are now falling apart, as we speak, crushing under the financial and economic stresses, now more then ever there is a need to help those single Moms in need.Watching my middle-class single Mom friends increasingly struggle in this economy, I launched www.HelpMomsNow.com last year. We are looking to raise awarness of this problem, right here in America. Perhaps we can make a difference one Mom at a time. There is a saying that it takes a village to raise a child. I think it's time that we felt a little more responsibility for those children who need our help whether or not we gave birth to them, regardless of who is bearing the sole responsibility to make their lives whole. Instead of blaming and pointing fingers, let's focus on a solution. To those Ann Coulters out there, you should look yourselves in the mirror and ask what you really want to live for.
