To ask if you call yourself a single parent....

[MiaMarshmallows]

If you-

1. Have a partner who spends half the week at your home.
2. Share 50/50 care with the other parent

@HitthatroadJack I kind of know what your friend means! I definitely call myself a single parent but (when I know people won't be upset by it) do joke that DH would be much more hands-on if it wasn't for the inconvenience of having died...

@Mia1415 I simply disagree. I'm not single but I do parent alone. I am a lone parent . I don't see how my partner contributing the odd thing makes him a parent, any more than a really helpful grandparent would make a lone parent no longer a lone parent.

What exactly is the terminology, in your wise opinion, for a parent in a relationship, who does the parenting single handed?

Having a man in my life doesn't make him the great saviour or worthy of any kind of parenting status. Nor should it diminish the absolute graft I put in every single day to raise my kids myself .

I agree with @Mia1415 and I've always described myself as a sole parent on that basis.

I class myself as a single parent because I'm the only adult in the household therefore it's a single adult household. I also do over 80% of the parenting.
I have a partner I do not live with. If he moved in, I would no longer be a single parent.

Doos OP have an opinion or just a thread to have everyone fight on?

Surely a single parent is a widow/er who is not in a relationship (or unmarried equivalent) or person who lives alone with their child doing all the parenting and reliant upon their own means for income.

Coparenting covers a wide range including financial contributions but you can have a massive extreme from one person to the next and many might well be better off as a single parent or else consider their ex contributes so little that they might as well.

I’d call myself a single parent or a lone parent, I’m my sons only parent, I’m the only one responsible for him.

@PizzaForOne

I consider single parent to be if you are a single person who has custody of the children (or 50/50 arrangement).

If you have a new partner and you fully live together and combine finances, of course you are not a single parent anymore.

If you and your partner have separate homes and finances and basically date/spend a few evenings with each other each week, I think the single parent status remains valid.

I agree with this.

What exactly is the terminology, in your wise opinion, for a parent in a relationship, who does the parenting single handed?

Honestly? It wouldn't be polite! You live with a partner, and your children, but they have no parenting role whatsoever?
My term would be (being polite) someone who made a really bad decision.

@MrsTerryPratchett

Doos OP have an opinion or just a thread to have everyone fight on?

Quite.

Also, why are people so bothered about what others call themselves and why do they try to police it?

@teateateateateamoretea

Maybe you could get off your high horse and actually RTFT before you go commenting - and that's me being polite My partner is not my children's father and has not earned the status of parent.

You cant win on MN. People who bring men into their life and insert them in the role of "daddy" are set upon. Women who maintain adult relationships without skewing the lines of partner and parent are accused of making "really bad decisions". Honestly, get a life

Parents - single, lone, co-parenting, alien, polka-dotted - can call themselves whatever they like, because they know what best suits their situation. No-one gets to decide for them.

@MrsTerryPratchett

Doos OP have an opinion or just a thread to have everyone fight on?

I suspect they want it to turn into a bun fight.... It will be the benefits they get (or not) next..

Maybe you could get off your high horse and actually RTFT before you go commenting - and that's me being polite

I did, thanks, and I'm not on any horse, high or otherwise. Read a dictionary.

lone parent
nounBRITISH
a person bringing up a child or children without a partner.

You have a partner, that you live with. If you choose to still do everything yourself, up to you, but you are not a lone parent.

Parents - single, lone, co-parenting, alien, polka-dotted - can call themselves whatever they like, because they know what best suits their situation. No-one gets to decide for them

The dictionary does. Words have meaning, you can't choose your own definitions. Claiming to be a single parent doesn't make you one, when you aren't single.

@Fatbottomedgurl

But you are not alone if you have a partner. I've only ever known the definition of a lone parent, to be a single parent without a partner where the father has no involvement.

www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lone-parent

To me a single parent means one and only one of you. Not an involved ex or even someone who sends cash. Someone who is doing it all. All the time

I can’t think of a scenario where I need to categorise myself as single parent or not.

If I need to say anything I just say “I’m not with their dad”... why does anyone else need to know any more?

Share 50/50 care with the other parent

You're confusing "single" with "sole". The above is still a single parent.

Single parent if you are only adult in the house with sole responsibility for keeping a roof over your head

I call myself a lone parent, as for some reason I prefer it - “single mum” has some negative connotations!

My dd has a dad, but I am still a lone patent.

It’s so weird that this turns in to a bun fight. The point, surely, is that there is no actual definition of single parent, or sole parent. It follows that there will be a wide range of interpretations. All one can do it say how you identify yourself.

If one pp wants to Identify as a single parent, surely that is ok, even if her situation isn’t what another pp would call being a single parent.

As another pp said, there is a very wide spectrum.

Notcontent

I struggled with that too but have come full circle and am proud now to call myself both a single mum and a sole parent.

Lol my cousin does 50/50 with her ex and is quite independently wealthy through her parents (her ex comes from a wealthy family as well). My cousin has drivers, a nanny, a housekeeper, and my aunt to help her out when she has her kids - yet she posts endlessly on social about how tough her life is as a single mom

I don’t say anything btw, and make all the right noises when I see her, but I do have a little giggle to myself when I see her posts!

I consider myself to be a single parent, I'm single and my daughter sees her dad twice a month. He's involved in her life but I make all of the decisions and do all of the heavy lifting. I would consider lone parenting as any situation where the other parent has no contact / input, either through choice or circumstance. You're not a single parent if your spouse / partner works away a lot.

Lone parent is like the other parent isnt in the picture or you are single and conceived using an anonymous donor or adopted on your own.