Last fall, I reviewed the excellent new book Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice: How Women are Choosing Parenthood without Marriage and Creating the New American Family by sociologist Rosanna Hertz. Dr. Hertz will be on the Today show tomorrow, January 15, between 8 and 8:30 a.m. Eastern. If you are interested in how the American family is changing, I encourage you to watch it.
Although I’m not a single mom, I found a lot of parallels between what Hertz says about intentional single moms (straight, lesbian, and bi) and what I know to be true about lesbian moms, both partnered and single. There are many commonalities in the ways we create our families through donors or adoption, the support networks we build, our concerns about male influence and role models, and the ways in which we challenge conventions of what it means to be a family.
Hertz has answered her three most common interview questions on the Oxford University Press blog. Read it if you’d to get like a sense of the types of issues she may cover in her Today appearance.
Dear Rosanna,
I support your efforts so much, thank you. By the way, I am a female who was raped by her father when I was 7 years old. I have been through alot of counseling over the years but I still feel it is not necessary to have a father in a childs life; most of the nurturing and love come from the mother anyway. So many celebraties, sports greats and other professionals have been raised by a single mom. The people who have opposition to the choice of a single woman having a child are just closed minded. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Again.
Being a parent by itself is a difficult thing and a single mother has to face so many more challenges. I commend any parent who raises a child by themselves. I lost a son when he was 2 years old when I left him with a nanny. Her carelessness caused that to happen. There are certain measures we as mothers should all take to make sure that our children are safe at all times. It is not an easy task.