Raise your hand if you were raised by a single parent.

[trof]

<hand up here>
How'd you turn out?
According to Frist (he of the long face and sanctimonious platitudes), Santorum (possible closet necrophiliac), et al, if you don't have two parents of opposite sexes you don't have much of a chance.

So...how many of you turned out to be ax murderers, rapists, thieving CEOs, or Republicans?
How many dismal failures like two-parent W* are amongst us single parent screw ups?

I think my late mom would kick his ass.
She did not suffer fools and was a dab hand at (at least verbally) kicking ass.
:grr:

[mstrsplinter326]

1. Hand up

Not a repukkk, so I turned out just fine, right?

[TNOE]

2. Been a single mother

since my daughter was 8 months old. She is now 22 and FLOURISHING. Going to college, engaged and if I might say so myself - one astonishingly beautiful woman - INSIDE and OUT.

Edited to add: I don't know how much MORE SICK these fucks can make me!! Every damn day something!

[catzies]

21. Me too. Single teenage mom too.

My daughter just turned 24 and is flourishing too.

Go, us. :loveya:

[TNOE]

27. LOL

Go US - RIGHT ON!!!

AND my daughter is a PROUD LIBERAL!!!! To boot!

You know it was harder than hell - but worth every minute! The reward was well worth it. NOW the father wants to be involved, when the work is done!

[Worst Username Ever]

3. Kind of

I switched between mom and dad evenly, so one parent at a time... but I had both parents in my life. I turned out just fine, although I still don't know the source of why I am so damn overly sexualized. Seriously, I should be checked into sexaholics anonymous.

[WilliamPitt]

4. Hand up

[apnu]

5. hand up !

I got the whole gammut... mother divorced just after I was born. A parade of dysfunctional father figures -- all of whom were abusive.

And in the end... I turned out fine. I have an irrational fear of heights but that comes b/c I fell out of a bunk bed when I was little and its one of my earliest memories. So no hang ups or other weirdness here.

[cheezus]

6. It's all about parental attention

one parent givng 6 hours of attention a day is better than 2 giving 2 each. Of course one parent can do the job fine.

but c'mon. how many of you raised by a single parent wished that you also had a father/mother. or for that matter, another father/mother?

[NashVegas]

32. How Many Single Parents Really Have 6 Hours to Give?

I mean, really give per day - not just happen to be in the same room.

Single parents do what they do because they have to. Children of single parents get on with it because they have to.

I was raised by a single parent and would have given anything for it to not have to be so.

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. Oh damn!

I was raised by a single parent and all I managed to do was go to college and maintain a 3.8 GPA...I'm such a scourge of society

[Worst Username Ever]

10. Your single parent must have been better than mine

I only managed a 3.6.

[Reverend_Smitty]

14. lol

but if it makes you feel any better I majored in basketweaving...lol
:silly:

[seabeyond]

28. bah h ha ha ha you two

i love you

that is just the sweetest

yea for you all

[Solly Mack]

8. Me

Mom and dad divorced before my 1st birthday. My stepfather didn't come along until later and not for long.

I'm not an axe murderer, rapists, corrupt CEO, or a republican (isn't that the same thing really?).

[slinkerwink]

9. here! I turned out fine, heh

[readmylips]

11. Hands Up....

My Dad died when I was 2. Mom never married again but I had my grand parents who filled my life with wisdom. I was a single Mom myself for many years before I met my wonderful husband.

[otohara]

12. Hand

Life with mom was hell - I'm not a criminal - at least I don't think so.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. It's a known fact that Children Raised By Frist

turn into pumpkin-f*ckers.

I don't even know what that means, but it sounds scientifically accurate.

Anyway, let's look at the record, shall we?

Bill Clinton, raised by a strong single woman (with various step-fathers.)

Dubya, raised by the mom from Pink Floyd's "The Wall", and a CIA goon who has never adequately explained what he was doing in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Case closed.

[Nikia]

15. My parents were divorced when I was 3

My dad remarried when I was 9. My mom remarried when I was 11. My step father was abusive. My step mother wasn't but I don't think that she thought much of us. My parents were very busy with their own lives when I was little. Some of it because they needed to afford to raise us. Some of it because they were selfish young adults. I don't know if the opposite sex things helped very much since my mother was the more agressive ambitious one while my father was quieter and more artsy. My grandparents were very good role models for my sister and I though and provided good examples for mature relationships and moral living. I know many other people with lousy childhoods who looked to other adults in their lives when their parents could not provide what they needed. What we really need to encourage is extended family and family friend involvement in children's lives not the isolation of the nuclear family.

[arbusto_baboso]

16. Hand up, here...

And ironically enough, it's my mom who is the liberal.

Dad, the thrice-married (four times, if you believe his drunken ramblings about the woman he knew in France before he met mom), twice-divorced, philandering, alcoholic shitbag is a "family values" conservative who won't even talk to me if I'm wearing my Kerry pin.

Frist, Santorum and crew are no better than him. In fact, Dad has always been my personal poster-boy for the Personal Responsibility Party.

[LizW]

17. Husband was

Seven kids, single mom. (Their dad ran off when the youngest was 6 weeks old.) They lived on welfare for a while until the youngest started school, then she worked in a sewing plant. They struggled, but mostly turned out great. Five of the seven have fine families, educations and careers. Two of the boys struggled with alchoholism and all the resulting problems.

My mother-in-law was a wonderful person, and she never had it easy. Passed away two years ago, and we miss her a lot.

[sallyseven]

19. Hand up

My mom raised my sister and I single handedly. A great mom and a strong democrat. Lived until she was 83. I miss her every day.

[fudge stripe cookays]

18. 13 years of normalcy, then it turned to shit

when my dad died.

Unless you count the *ick she "dated" (for want of a better word) for 10 years, yes, I was raised by a single parent.

I did OK I guess. I'm not into drugs, and I made A's and B's in school. I've had my problems too though.

FSC

[put out]

20. Hand up.

My parents divorced when I was very young. My father, however, was always in our lives, though we were in my mother's custody. Probably my little brother and I had more love and attention from them when they were apart than we would have had if they had stayed married.

P.S. My dad was a high school teacher in our school. Nothing my brother and I ever did escaped his notice.

My brother and I work now as glamorous international criminals, robbing evil doers of their ill-gotten gains from the poor and disenfranchised, specializing in spectacular escapes, interspersed with feats of heroic rescue of the down-trodden. Did I mention death-defying?

[trof]

22. I was 4.

A wartime divorce. WWII.
Never saw him or any of his family again.
Maternal grandparents were a big influence.
Mom was a liberal before I'd ever heard the word.
She was always for the underdog, the little guy, the downtrodden.
I was never in any serious trouble.
I was an indifferent student until I was in my early twenties.
I had a decent career, married a truly great woman, have a lovely daughter and a super son-in-law, and...did I tell you about my grandson Jack?

Eff off Frist.
You and the dead cat you rode in on.
_|_

[noiretextatique]

23. i WISH i was..does that count?

i think all of us would have been better off.

[Solly Mack]

25. I think you turned out beautifully even with the disadvantage of 2 parents

if that is what you meant by "I wish I was" (a child of a single parent)

regardless, you've turned out beautifully!

[noiretextatique]

30. thanks, solly

that's very kind of you to say...right back at ya :loveya: and yes...from the time i was about 5, i hoped my mother would divorce my tyrant father. i used to dream about it every night. unfortunately, she didn't have the strength/courage to do it, and he worn her down so that she had a nervous breakdown and totally retreated into herself by the time i was a teenager.
it took me years to come to terms with my wonderful two-parent upbringing.
santorum can go cheney himself as far as i'm concerned...sometimes one pareent IS a whole lot better than two.

[Solly Mack]

40. I wish I had know you then. We could have been a comfort to each other

growing up. :hug:

I agree. One good parent alone beats one good parent and one bad parent combined.

[noiretextatique]

42. likewise, my dear

:grouphug:

[trof]

29. I could agree.

I think I was a hell of a lot better off with one caring parent than in the middle of either a war zone or a tennis match.

[noiretextatique]

34. i hear ya, trof

been there, done that...and it took more years than i lived with them to get over living with them :shrug:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

24. Child of divorce, mid-1970's here!

I am an educated person, a teacher, a wife and mother. I vote in every election I am eligible to, I volunteer to help those less fortunate, and I give more to charity than I can probably afford.

Those guys need to get a SERIOUS grip on reality.

[Don_G]

26. I Was

My father got abusive in the '70's, my Mom divorced his ass and raised my brother and I the best way she could on practically nothing.

I think I turned out well, but my Brother is a Freeper Insurance Adjuster.

[ronnykmarshall]

31. Hand up

My parents divorced when I was 16, but my dad was not around a lot for the last 6 years of their marrage.

[Justpat]

33. Single Mom

My ex took off when I was eight months pregnant. I raised my
daughter by myself. She is one of the best people I know.
Full acedemic scholarship to college, good job, an absolute gem.

[hang a left]

35. I am a raisin' and a wavin'

:hi:


I have issues though. But don't kill or rape. So do people I know that were raised in intact families. I have had lots a chances, many were squandered on being young and wild. I am a white upper-middle class twice divorced, now re-married female. I had a lot more opportunities than poor black and hispanic kids coming from intact homes as well.

[shanti]

36. nope, two-parent family

but myself, i am a single mom and have basically been one for about 20 years. a harder job has never been invented!

[progressivebydesign]

37. Raised by divorced parent from age of 12.

Hmmm.. I'm a nice person. Had some success in life. Would have made a lot less mistakes had I been better supervised. Wish I had a father figure growing up... As I see how my stepdaughters fare with a strong, normal father, I can see there is a benefit to having that in your life growing up.

I've know plenty of kids with intact homes who were really screwed up. It's the quality of the parents, and the attention given the kids.. more than anything.

Hey.. we all do the best with what we are given. Does Frist object to widowed parents? What a dork.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

38. he need to read "The Color of Water"..a true story..single jewish mom.....

poor and raised 12 by racial children and all are college grads (doctors, lawyers, professors)James McBride is one

"God is the color of water" was the wise response given young James by his Mother, Rachel (Ruth)Shilsky McBride Jordan, when he asked her "What color is God?" This is a moving true-life story.

[proud patriot]

39. single dad raised me from 13 to adulthood

:hi:

[Hobarticus]

41. Me too. GOP father ran off with his girlfriend!

And we've done pretty damn good. Three of five children hold college degrees. Put that in your ass and blow, Frist.

[playahata1]

43. Parents separated when I was 11, divorced when I was 17.

Both parents were always around, even when they were not together. My maternal grandparents have been present in my and my brother's lives from Day One. Frist the Cat Killer, Sanctimonious and all the other "family values" creeps can kiss my ass with their bullshit.

[no name no slogan]

44. Parents divorced age 4

but dad lived in town until I was 7, then moved across the country. I saw him every 2 years or so growing up, but have never been very close with him (I'm now 35).

Mom quit substitute teaching (P/T) and got a job as a keypunch operator with IBM in 1974. She's worked her way up from that job (a glorified typist, really) to be a VP.

We received tons of support from my maternal grandparents. My granddad's sheet metal shop in Minneapolis was the first to sell 30' gutters in the area. He also invented and patented a strap for hanging gutters in the 50s, which allowed him to make a lot of $$$ in the postwar housing boom. He retired in his early 50s, and spent the next 30 years taking care of his wife (my grandmother), who had severe rheumatoid arthritis. All this from a man who had to quit school in the 9th grade to help support his family.

I am very proud of my mother and family, as they worked hard to survive some very tough times. They are some of the most resilient people I know, and I love them all dearly.

[LittleApple81]

45. I had two parents BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF they had divorced.

Life was really miserable... but my mother had no hope: no divorce in my country at that time.

[AlCzervik]

46. yup, parents split up when i was 5

Saw my Dad on weekends, since it was the swinging 70's visits also included his current short term women he screwed but had no intention of ever committing too but they didn't know it...poor dears. Anyhow, money was tight and stress was kind of high but it was ok. When i almost 15 my mother fell terminally ill and i and the good people of hospice saw her through her last 2 years, after my mom died i moved in with my Dad until i started college that fall. I graduated and got a good job, met my now husband and got marrried. We've been married now for almost 14 years come september and have a almost 10 year old wonderful daughter. All and all i'd say my life turned out better than i had hoped for.