Where has this left my thinking?

What society accepts as "normal" is ever changing, so educators need to be aware, and be adaptable to change.

I knew that single parent families were a major part of today's societal structure, and that these parents had struggles in bringing up their child. But in my mind I think that every family comes in to struggle at some point, that nothing is ever easy. Especially for first time parents. 

I believe that through the government's and centre policies, early childhood practices have strong foundations to support children's families. 

Some parents are afraid to reach out for help. These are some helpful websites that I found are helpful in many different ways. These tips and advice I would recommend to any single parent, both women and male. 

http://www.singleparents.co.nz/

http://www.huggies.co.nz/parenting/new-parents/single-parents/family

http://www.kiwifamilies.co.nz/articles/birthright/

http://www.treasures.co.nz/en/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NZ-Single-Parents/186440951369210

http://fatherandchild.org.nz/

Pedagogical implications for practice

In my previous blogs I researched different implications that single parent families have. But the question that I would like to consider is the policies that educators can follow and implement to help and support single parent families. As my research has proved so far, being a solo parent is a lot harder than a family with two parents. I found that the need for an income to a single parent is more sought after. This means that their child has to be put in to early childhood care or someone to look after while the parent is at work.

There are support systems in place from the government to get free childcare. Ministry of Education (n.d.) states that from 1 July 2010 all three, four and five-year old children are able to go to early childhood education (ECE) services for six hours a day, 20 hours a week at no charge. But where does this leave the children under the age of three?

Most single parent families want to put their child in to care before the age of three, and return to work. Some parents like to stay at home and care for their children, but it depends whether they can afford to or not. 

Children will often show signs of distress, or emotional changes when going through a separation of parents. Because of this it tells me the role of the teacher is important. Early Childhood Australia (2010) gave points on how conflict in these situations impact children. These were:

• Children's development is influenced by the quality of their caregiving relationships.
• Children who witness intense/frequent marital discord exhibit higher levels of emotional and physiological reactivity.

From these points it shows me what teachers should focus on. Provide quality relationships, help children understand the world, nurture them and work to improve the child's development. Early Childhood Australia (2010) explains that children have higher emotional and physiological reactivity and higher cortisol levels (stress). 

Teachers don't just work with children, but also with parents and whanau. Feeny, Moravick, Nolte & Christensen (2010) explain that as a teacher you may find yourself being "a consultant, a social worker, an advocate, a teacher, a reporter, a mediator, and a social director' (p.7). Feeny et al (2010) also explain that when there is a major change in a childs life such as divorce it is best to keep their school life as normal as possible, that policies and procedures need to be established prior to a problem occurring. 

This shows that it is important to have policies in place in regards to pedagogy especially in regards to well being of the child and their family. 

"The first public policy response to sole parenthood came soon after New Zealand was      established as a British colony in 1840. It emphasised family responsibility for the support of the sick, the unemployed, the aged, deserted wives and unmarried mothers" (Goodger, p.3, 1998).   

In the 21st century, early childhood education policy aims for New Zealand children to participate in early childhood education no matter what family circumstance. 

The government currently funds for a range of parent support and development (PSD) programmes. They focus on developing the role of ECE centres, and is aimed at families at risk of poor health, education and social outcomes and who have children aged 0–3. (Munford, Sanders, Maden & Maden, 2007). From this information, it answers my question of 'where does the 20 hours ece free leave children under three years of age'.

Teachers have a code of ethics as a professional guideline. They have a moral obligation to work collaboratively with parents, guardians and family/whanau as well as children as learners (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2005). As seen in the figure below, you can see the four ethical  principals that weave together (New Zealand Teachers Council, n.d.).

From this information, it tells me that the politics and policies of New Zealand give early childhood educators supportive information to work with pedagogical implications. That if practices work together, and as a team, the best education for a child can be given. 

Economic Impact on Single parent families.

Single parent families deal with many day to day issues. Most of these issues are those that the dominant nuclear family does not have to face. I wanted to find out what these issues are and discovered that there are many potential problem areas and pressures. 

The American Psychological Association states that these problems are:

- Visitation and custody problems.
- The effects of continuing conflict between the parents.
- Less opportunity for children and parents to spend time together.
- Effects of the breakup on children's school performance.

                                                                           (American Psychological Association, n.d.)

Society puts enormous pressure on mothers to provide a "good father figure" and twice as much pressure if you are raising a boy. (Levy, 2013).

These effects can have a huge impact and can lead to socio-economic problems. Link (2009) writes that "According to Weitoft, Hiem, Haglund and Rosen (2003) the socio-economic situation of children in families with only one adult was different from that of children in families with two adults. More single parents than couples were unskilled manual workers, low-grade non-manual workers, and people without an occupation, whereas couples were more likely than single parents to be high-grade or medium-grade non-manual workers (p. 291). From this information it shows that with the type of occupation and skills, a low pay rate would come with it. This means it would be difficuilt to pay for things and can lead to poverty. 

Economic impact has a large effect on single parent families. It is not easy surviving off a single income and supporting a child. Colin (2000) writes that "the economic impact is huge. It's a lose, lose, lose, lose..." that "family breakdown is a near direct path to poverty for women and children". Colin (2000) also follows that single mothers who could not fall back on their families received less assistance from government and were stigmatized to a far greater extent for being poor.

Laasko (2004) cited in Colin (2000) states that in terms of custodial and noncustodial parental responsibilities, financial contributions have often been seen as a key factor in explaining both mothers’ and fathers’ behaviours and the frequency of visits with their children (p.3). This shows that income plays a big role in single parents responsibilities and effects not only the parents but the impact it has on the child and the support given to raise the child. In most situations it is the mother that has custody of the child and the father having to pay child support. This conversation between parents leads to effects of continuing conflict between the parents. This has an impact on the child.

There are many ways that parents can co-operate to make things easier on each other. I found very helpful information through this website. 

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/coparenting_shared_parenting_divorce.htm

So what does this mean for single parent families?

In today's economy in regards to the recession, it is very hard to find part time work that is respectable and put your child in to care.  Most single parents think that the easier option is to resort to the government and go on the benefit.  The New Zealand benefit is called 'the domestic purposes benefit'. Cited in Work and Income (n.d.) the current amount that sole parents can receive on the benefit as of 1, April, 2013 is:

Category	Net	Gross
Sole parent	$295.37	$335.18
Hospital rate	$42.64	$47.64

Looking at the price range that is available on the DPB, it makes me wonder how hard it must be to keep up with day to day bills such as rent, power, food, petrol. These bills are not exactly on the cheap side, and it must be very hard for single parents to cope and not head down the road to poverty. 

I looked in to what legislations the government had in regards to helping this group of people, and I found that: There are current changes being made with the government and legislation is passing through. Paula Bennett, Minister of social development has welcomed the passing of the social security amendment bill into law 'Benefit Categories and Work Focus' (Bennett, 2013). These changes are:

- Job seeker support for people actively seeking work.
- Support for sole parents with children under 14 years of age.
- Supported living payment for people significantly restricted by sickness, injury or disability. 

Bennett (2013) states that “The legislation also introduces new social obligations to ensure children in benefit-dependent homes get quality Early Childhood Education, are enrolled with a doctor, get their Well Child checks and are in school if they are school-age. This will be a huge help to single parent families in regards to putting their child in an early childhood practice to gain education and the best start to their life. 

History of structure through the generations with single parent families

In my previous blog I discussed the nature of single parenting families and that historical, demographic and economic trends play a significant role in the changing family structure of single parent families. I wanted to understand these trends, and in order to do this I needed to understand the history in society. I discovered some very interesting information and found a period timeline on the Ministry of Social Development website. 

The information that I gathered from this journal was put in to three generations. 

- People aged 65 years and over (born in 1943 or before)

- People aged between about 38 and 64 years (born between 1944 and 1970)

- People aged between 15 and 37 (born between 1971 and 1993).

                                                                                                            (Cribb, 2009)

From these three generations I gained new information about the experiences that occurred during those time periods. 

People born in 1943 or before

The people in this generation are commonly known as the 'silent generation'.

The generation of this era has seen to be 'ambitious, often seeking achievement, power and status' (Music as a Generational Totem, n.d.). People got married before the age of 25 years old, and the social reputation of a child was largely dependent upon the social status of his or her family (Music as  Generational Totem, n.d.). 

There were barely any single parent families, the only way that was commonly known to end in a single parent situation was through death of a spouse rather than through divorce. (Cribb, 2009). Divorce was not accepted in society at this point in time. From this information, it supported what my grandparents said things were like. I always look up to this generation when it came to marriage and staying together as they seem to hold such strong ethical morals and stay together through everything. 

People born between 1944 and 1970

I researched that the people in this era is commonly known as 'the baby boomers' (Cribb, 2009). 

This was the generation that was very different to the previous. There was an increase of family diversity and a decrease in family size and marriage rate. (Cribb, 2009). This is the generation that stands out to me because this was the era of change, where the diversity of family structure started to differ. (Baby Boomers, n.d.) explains that the possible reason for change was because there 'was a desire for normalcy after 16 years of depression and war'. Through my findings I believe that this was the period where people were changing viewpoints on how life  could be and that they had more confidence to make change. 

An increase of people more likely to be single parents happened between the late 1970's to early 1980's (Statistics New Zealand, 1999). This shows that as time went on single parent situations were increasing. 

The reasons for the increase in change was likely to be from an increase in divorcees with dependent children and an increase in young unmarried mothers who had decided not to place their babies for adoption (Cribb, 2009). Even with the increase, society still not accept divorce as the "normal" thing to do.

People born between 1971 and 1993

This era is what is commonly known as different and diverse. Less marriages are occurring and defacto relationships are more prevalent and have replaced marriage among younger people (Cribb, 2009). 


Statistics showed that by 1971, only 5 percent of all households were single-parent families (Statistics New Zealand, 2005). This is not a large statistical amount but is more than the previous generation.

The fastest growing group of children in single parent families are the children with parents that have never been married. (Statistics New Zealand, 1999). This graph shows the difference of children in single parent families from 1991 to 1996.

                                                                                 (Statistics New Zealand, 1999)

I am now more open minded and knowledgeable about history of how people have come to a diverse point in society and how families are all different. I have researched that it is common  now for parents not to get married and I believe that this is the reason why statistics in society are changing.