Single Mothers In Modern America

Mothers are placed with almost impossible expectations in today’s world, rendering it nearly impossible for single moms to get a good image when raising kids as it is so difficult to properly do so in the battle of money, jobs, kids, and their owns lives. Modern America proves to be a tough place to be a single mom, however, even in partnered relationships mothers do most of the work when it comes to raising their children. Correlating to this, within the essay Anger and Tenderness written by Adrienne Rich, included in the Mother Reader book, she says, “My husband was a sensitive, affectionate man who wanted children and who – unusual in the professional, academic world of the fifties – was willing to ‘help’. But it was clearly understood that …show more content…
However, when a mom is single, society places exceptionally high expectations on them to do the “work” within her family as well as be able to provide the same amount of care towards their children. The media, including television shows, will then portray what their image of single moms, according to Elizabeth Bruno, a doctoral student at the University of Oregon writes, “The movie follows five single moms who meet when their children are nearly expelled from the private school they attend… Each of the five women in this film are introduced in a situation of powerlessness” (TheAtlantic.com). Bruno agrees that films portray single moms incorrectly, as they tend to be people in need of help and searching for success, correlating to Norma Bates who in search of success, moved to White Pine Bay in search of a new life and attempt to give her son a chance at being normal. In return she destroys everything she sets out accomplish through her own will, and by the surrounding expectations of the …show more content…
An example of this being The Babadook, a movie about the horrors that a single mom and her son goes through at their home. This movie on the surface is just another horror movie about some random demonic being, however, on a deeper level this movie represents something else, a real tragedy in today’s world. That tragedy is the mothers stress and horrors of raising a borderline mental child, the movie portraying her stress of parenting alone through the monster that stalks them, a clever analogy that truly represents the horrors associated with the quality of life due to single parenting. A scene from the movie displays this when the child Samuel (played by Noah Wiseman) is screaming uncontrollably in the car as the mom, Amelia (played by Essie Davis) stops the car and breaks down, screaming. This example of a stressful situation in single parenting leads to the image of betrayal of single motherhood, as this scene plus many others within the movie display what society thinks single parenting consists of, but nothing that is good about it. Many film and television shows express the same image, only portraying the bad within single motherhood, and that single moms cannot properly raise kids. However, within the essay, Anger and Tenderness, Rich exhorts, “My