I hate this phrase! As soon as someone intentionally utters this phrase we'll all supposed to collective sigh, "awe...".
This phrase has turned into nothing more than an instant appeal for victim-hood status and I hate it. Everybody's situation is certainly different, but on some level we all make choices. I am tired of having to carry the load for people who regularly make bad choices in their lives and expect everyone else to pick them up, dust them off, and say, "There, there, how much money and public support can we now give you because you're a single mom?"
Sometimes Americans just love to wallow in self pity and it's getting very tiresome. Many of these are the same ones who are hardcore Liberals and who refuse to acknowledge Biblical principles as hokey and beneath them and then rail against Christian Conservatives.
Sometime, not all the time, but sometimes you make your choices and there are known consequences and it ain't MY fault. Do something different. Make different choices to achieve better outcomes.
Boo hoo, I'm a single Mom.
And for some reason it is inappropriate to inquire as to the circumstances of single-motherhood. You can’t ask if the woman is widowed, divorced or never married, as that would be a breach of her privacy, yet she is free to state that she is now single and a mother.
This is important, if you are a believer in personal responsibility. One cannot help being a widow, and divorce is sometime unavoidable (or was not the woman’s choice). But those women who choose to have children without ever having been married to the father have made a choice for which they should be held largely responsible.