The number of single mothers has been on a steady rise over the past decades. According to a recent press release by the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 9.88 million single mothers in the U.S. in 2007, which is up from 3.4 million in 1970.

As a single parent, how much money do you need to make to be able to cover your expenses all by yourself, without public aid? It turns out that it is quite a bit, at least in Massachusetts. The Crittenton Women’s Union (CWU), a Boston-based nonprofit group, said that you will need to make somewhere around $30 per hour and hold a full-time job, just to get by.

This book should be required reading for any woman who has been in an abusive relationship, physical and/or emotional. The focus is on the man and why he does the things he does, even if he claims he loves you. Women who are armed with this insight can have a better understanding of the dynamics of her relationship with her spouse which can lead to regaining control of her life and make it more likely for her to heal emotionally. Author Lundy Bancroft uses “he” for the abuser and “she” for the abused. However, even if abuse also occurs in same sex relationships, the bulk of what is described in this book is still relevant to that situation.

Sue Sanders over at Your Tango has posted an interesting story about a dating experience as a single mom, an experience that addresses so many concerns and worries you may have as well. When is the right time to introduce your children to a date or boyfriend/girlfriend? In Sue’s case, life is much less complicated than she anticipated.

Sue describes how she believed she had agreed way too early to introduce her date to her young daughter, just after three dates. She was worried that she was about to make a mistake, but the situation turned out to be everything what anyone of us could wish for.

There are just a few days left to ring in a new decade, so it is somewhat obvious that you will read a lot about top 10 decade lists over the next few days. And yes, there is also a top 10 Parents list – the St. Louis Today website was first to come out with such a list. Limiting an entire decade to just ten (types) of parents might be a bit difficult, so take this list with a grain of salt.

I’ll take a good guess and just assume that you are among those 300 million Facebook users and there is a reasonable chance that, since you are a single parent, you are among the 60 million who actually use the site on a daily basis. Given the massive impact the site has on our lives – according to Alexa.com, it is the Internet’s second most web site worldwide – any changes potentially should matter to you. Especially if Facebook modifies its privacy options and recommendations. You may have noticed the founder’s note on the Facebook main screen last week, but I wonder: Do you really (have to) care?

If you spend time learning about your date’s inner ideal secrets, you are likely to end up in a happy relationship down the road. If we believe new research released by scientists at Northwestern University, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and the University of London, then the “Michelangelo effect”, a scenario in which partners try to “chisel, carve and polish away flaws in a partner to reveal the ideal form” is much more important than previously thought.

Common sense suggests that good looks are always a helpful asset when you are looking to connect with other people. But new research suggests that this may not always be the case and whether you need to be attractive to be able create social ties highly depends on where you live.

Last weekend, we heard rumors that Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren may be splitting and now we are seeing plenty of buzz that this rumor in fact may be true. And Woods’ efforts to repair what has been damaged may have failed already. Apparently, his wife and Elin and his kids will spend Christmas in Sweden, while Woods will stay in Florida, hoping for things to calm down.

If we believe the usual suspects among typically well-informed tech bloggers, Google has begun testing its own cellphone. Apparently it will look just like an iPhone, with a huge touchscreen, but it will be thinner and it is squarely aimed at the crowd that has become so dependent on texting and mobile Internet. Which, of course, includes single parents who need to stay in touch with their kids.

A new report from the Census Bureau confirms a long standing cliché – that kids growing up in single parent families generally do not perform as well in school as kids who grow up in a traditional two-parent family environment. But the gap isn’t substantial, at least as far as divorced families are concerned. In fact, the challenge of keeping teenagers on track in school is by far greater.

I was married before the ripe-old age of 24.
Before that, I was one of those girls who always had a boyfriend. Always.
And I liked it that way. Safe. Knowable. Predictable. Easy. Neat. Comfort Zone.
So now, here I am at the age of 38. Newly-single. Grabbing and enjoying life in new and amazing ways.  And constantly [...]