Why are there so many single parents

[Nowhereqw]

Don't mean to offend anyone but I am new to UK and noticed there are so many single parents.
I am from Asia and most families I know have two parents so I am just curious about it.

There's an edit function now 😂

Because CSA and benefits. 💷💷💷💷

I wouldn’t say 15% of all families is a lot (proportion of single parents in the UK)? In the UK 17% of Asian households are single parents, so it’s actually slightly higher for that demographic.

Hilarious. Yeah, you'll be rolling in cash.

Divorce is more common in poorer, less affluent areas of the country.
If you are in London, the same applies. However, this is not true of areas which for religious and cultural regions are predominantly opposed to divorce. So Oxford which is a wealthy, middle class area has one of the lowest divorce rates in the country. However Tower Hamlets (one of the poorest areas of London) also has a very low divorce rate because the majority of residents are opposed to divorce on religious grounds.

@ginandtonicwithlimes

Sure, but we it’s the woman that’s literally left holding the baby

Because thank goodness we are not taught to have to put up with an unhappy relationship.

I was raised by a single mum for half my childhood. The years my parents were together were stressful and unhappy, filled with tension and anger. The other half of my childhood, after he finally left were peaceful, calm, fun and filled with happiness.

I think it’s brilliant that we live in a society where you don’t have to stay with someone who makes you miserable.

@DysonSpheres can you not detect the hint of sarcasm?

What country are you from, OP?
Asia is a big, varied place.

Because we eat all the men after we mate with them.

Cheaper than turnips.

It didn't come across as sarcasm. I thought you were being serious. An emoji other than the money one would have helped 😁

No one is this stupid. On the other hand, my closest friend's very ex(D)H is Asian. He slept with a sex worker, is an alcoholic and abusive. He and his family all blamed her for breaking up their family. He still calls her his wife, despite the fact she's about to remarry. Perhaps in some cultures wives put up with a lot more shit than others.

You really don't.

Yes but the term "getting pregnant' makes it sounds like she did it all herself.

Most divorces are initiated by women.

In England and Wales: "Among opposite-sex couples in 2021, females were more likely to petition for divorce (63.1%) compared with males (36.9%); these are similar proportions to those in 2020, with 62.6% of petitions where females petitioned and 37.4% with males petitioning." (ONS: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/divorce/bulletins/divorcesinenglandandwales/2021)

Then "Unreasonable behaviour was the most common reason for females petitioning for divorce among opposite-sex couples in 2021, accounting for 48.1% of applications; for males, the most common reasons for divorce were unreasonable behaviour or two-year separation, which both accounted for 34.8% of applications."

Because a lot of UK women prefer to go it alone than put up with the various forms of shit that the patriarchal structures - cultural, societal, legal, religious, etc - have expected us to put up with.

This change has taken at least 100 years in the making, yet rest assured if it makes you feel uncomfortable, there's still many women who find that having a 'partnership' with a man is still vastly preferable. And I won't criticize that at all, because life is a lot easier with 2 people working together and good for them for finding a man they can co-exist with. Or woman.

Welcome to the UK - we have more freedoms than most, although another British trait is that we're into doing ourselves down, a throwback to the 'stiff upper lip' and aversion to 'blowing one's own trumpet'.

That said, we are pretty top at laughing at ourselves, a unique and positive characteristic.

And there are economic factors such as access to support services, nannies, housekeepers and cleaners which all help take the pressure off couples who might otherwise struggle to effectively cohabitate and co-parent.

Sometimes you are left with no option? DS1's dad didn't want to know when I got pregnant so I ended up a single parent. It was either that or terminate but I'd seen a heartbeat and felt a connection do I couldn't go through with it. You can't force someone to stay with you in the UK!

No I missed it. I need to go to bed early!🤦🏿‍♀️

Ok I see it genuinely was hilarious now!

You obviously don't get out much, I watch a lot of reality tv, every Asian woman I've seen on 90 day fiancé has been a single mother.

I don’t see it as a problem.

Nor to answer another question, do all single parents get benefits. I don’t even qualify for child benefit.

But to answer the OP, there is a different culture, a different history and probably also a different legal system here than in Asian countries (which also no doubt have different cultures, histories and legal systems than each other). It would be rather strange if societies with different cultures, histories and legal systems looked the same today. Maybe do some reading on the history of families, separation and divorce in the U.K. and that will help answer your question.

Speak for yourself but I’m a single adoptive parent to two children with complex needs and disabilities and I know for a fact that I am saving the government about £300K a year absolute minimum in care fees. Maybe you could give me a rebate from your married couple tax relief. Or maybe the next (Labour) government should simply introduce a stupidity tax; it’d definitely be a vote winner here. 👍🏻

Because being a single parent is accessible both financially and from a societal pressures point of view.

It means when a relationship isn't working they don't feel obligated to stay together because that is what is the done thing.

My mum was a single mother in the 80s and had a hard time before she met my dad. My great grandfathers grandma was a single parent to two sons in the mid 1800s. He used to always say is grandfather was just some soldier. I have found census records from the time and she often had other single unmarred women with young babies living with her so we think she took in women that found themselves in a similar predicament. It's not a new concept

Maybe because there are no consequences for how people treat each other in a marriage (or if there are they are rarely enforced) so the only option is divorce.