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Parents' column: There is no such thing as “quasi single parents”

2020-09-24T22:59:53.943Z


Again and again I meet mothers or fathers who call themselves single parents just because they have to go without a partner for a few days. That stunned me every time.


Recently my son and I were enjoying the sun in the playground.

He did gymnastics on the jungle gym and quickly found another boy his age to play with.

His mother, in her forties, sat down next to me.

We began to talk about our everyday life, she married, I was a single parent, about school, about the Corona homeschooling months.

Photo: Lina Moreno / DER SPIEGEL

Sarah Wiedenhöft

, 28, is a freelance journalist and doctoral candidate.

As a young, queer, single mother of a black child, she is often confronted with prejudice.

In her column she writes how she deals productively with the injustices of everyday life.

"The worst were the three days my husband was not at home. I was practically a single parent, too," she said.

There it was again, the sentence that I keep hearing, that threatens to upset me every time - even though I'm actually a quiet person.

Because: The situation of a single parent is completely different from that of a parent who occasionally looks after a child alone on a daily basis.

In principle, I carry everything alone.

always

I put my son to bed every night, read him the bedtime story and wake him up every morning, make his lunch break, make sure he wears the right clothes.

If there are problems at school, I am always called, and if necessary, I have to settle an argument with his friends.

I take care of doctor's appointments.

I conduct the parenting talks at school and every time I hope that someone will sit across from me who understands the special burden of single parents.

She knows that I bear everything from the mental load to the financial burden.

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-24

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