1st Edition
Unbroken Homes Single-Parent Mothers Tell Their Stories
By Wendy A Paterson
Copyright 2001
426 Pages
by
Routledge
426 Pages
by
Routledge
426 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Explore the real-life triumphs and tragedies of single-parent mothers! Unbroken Homes is a “story quilt” of personal narratives constructed from in-depth, case study interviews of five single-parent mothers. The book chronicles their journeys as mothers, daughters, and women, in relationships and in solitude, displaying their stories in their own words like the squares of a... Read more
Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Why Do We Need This Book?
- The Rest of the Story
- Labeling and Deviance
- Defining Family
- The Importance of Theories and Interpretive Frameworks
- A Different Side of the Story
- Investigating the Lived Experiences of Single-Parent Mothers
- Methodology
- Presentation of the Book
- What Can Be Learned from Only Five Women?
- Chapter 1. What is Family? Mothering, Fathering and Being Single
- Defining Family
- Male Instrumentalists and Female Expressives: Gender Roles Defined
- Parenting: Sainted Mothers and Disappearing Fathers
- Divorce: A Battleground for Gender Wars
- Single Women: Apart and Together
- Conclusion
- Squares of the Quilt: Single Mothers Through Their Own Eyes
- The Story Quilt
- The Interviews
- The Women
- Chapter 2. Judith: “Getting My Life Back”
- Parents and Parenting
- Sensitivity to Stereotyping
- Facing Aloneness and Finding Strength
- The Question of Quality Time
- Beyond the Divorce: Parenting Changes
- Divorce As Liberation
- Emotional Codependency with Her Son
- Completing the Journey
- Chapter 3. Kathleen: “I Want to Do Everything Right”
- The Divorce Experience
- Providing Every Opportunity
- Reflections on Divorce
- Multiple Roles and Role Conflicts
- Teaching Values
- Learning About New Relationships: Her Significant Other
- Conclusion
- Chapter 4. Shawna: “Stand Your Ground”
- Power and Control: A Question of Property
- From the Other Side: The Child of a “Bad” Marriage
- Having a Baby, Not a Wedding
- Parenting Tasha
- The Good Aunt: Parenting a Teenage Mother's Troubled Daughter
- Breaking Out and Breaking Down
- Chapter 5. Lyn: “Just Get On with It”
- Three Generations of Single Moms
- Lyn's Divorce: Getting On with It
- Child Rearing: Encouraging Independence
- Myself Alone
- Coping with Depression
- Old and New Myths
- Retirement: No Place for Women
- Conclusion
- Chapter 6. Sarah: “Reparenting the Child in Me”
- The Characters
- The Settings
- Living in a Dysfunctional Marriage
- A History of Abuse
- Sarah Reparenting Herself
- Sarah's Daughters: Adolescent Storms
- Family: When It Works
- School and the Single Parent
- The Final Act: Picking Up the Pieces
- Conclusion: A Disaster and an Irish Blessing
- Chapter 7. Viewing the Quilt: Patterns and Themes
- Introduction
- Families and Parenting
- Gender Wars Revisited
- Women's Development: Journeys Through Self and Relationship
- The Children of Divorce: Before and After
- Conclusions and Recommendations
- References
- Index
Biography
Wendy A. Paterson, Ph.D., Dean, School of Education, Buffalo State University, USA.
