Categories: on-blogging, lone-parenting
Date: 28 November 2008 09:34:01
New blog, Knitting, Sex and God, seems like it's going to be an interesting read and so is one I'm recommending people go and explore. I don't think I know the writer - although she obviously reads this blog - (but having looked at her profile I'm thinking even if I don't actually know her we probably have friends in common somewhere).
Anyway one of her sidebar links was to this article on Women's e-news about the situation of "Single Moms" in the US. There were a couple of things I found interesting.
1) The way that the first interviewee said:"Everything I buy is a sale item," she said. "It takes a lot of work and planning to live like this because the cost of necessities like food is increasing."
This highlights the way in both countries much of the diet and consumer choices of lone parent families is often dictated by "what's on special". This isn't, by any means something restricted to lone parent families but rather is something common to many low income individuals and families.
2) The role of community colleges in the US. These types of college are the equivilent of our FE colleges (i.e. the sort of place I used to work). I think there is a strong argument, that FE colleges in this country may do well to heed when it says: "Older women make good role models for struggling students". When I was teaching Access students, particularly, I think the fact they knew I was a lone parent going through the same stuggles of juggling children and work helped a few of them.