Who said anything about replacing the dad. If people where to take your view then Susan Smith is how some will look at mothers. I perfer to look at each case and person, generalizations to easy.
Oh dear...What I meant by that was that most of these girl-women can’t seem to function without a boyfriend, no matter how useless in their lives. Their self worth is tied to attracting a man and keeping them, often at the risk of the safety and security of their children. This plays out with alarming frequency here in the rural Ozarks, since jobs are few and drug abuse and alcoholism is rampant. It’s a generational thing here. So my view is tinted by seeing it so often.
Granted, our sitch was different, but I’ve shown and taught mine by example that they shouldn’t link their worthiness as a human being to having a boyfriend around and that bad choices domino into poverty and despair. That’s all I was meaning by that. (Now once they are grown and out of the house, and I’m old and alone I just might take up with some old, gray and feeble feller just for company. But right now that ain’t in the cards and oddly, I’m very content about that.)