Dating For Single Parents

How do single parents find the time for dating?

How many of you out there are single parents and find the time to date? I’ve been a single parent for over 10 years now, and it just seems like there is always something going on. I’ve had to resort to online dating, there’s even a website for us single parents (singleparentmeet.com), but that doesn’t even seem to be working real well. I’m not the best looking guy on the planet, but I’m not the worst either.

How do some of your single parents do it?

Originally posted 2009-11-17 21:17:25. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: Dating, Find, parents, single, time

Question about single parents dating?

I am a single mother of 3 and I am 30. My ex fiance, as of last night, is a father of 2. His girls are teenagers, my kids are 7, 4, and 2. He left because I told him that if his 16 year old was going to live with me then she would talk to me and my children in a respectful manner. That she had no business bossing my children around, I am there mother. And I mean, this girl is very disrespectful, she went up to the jewelry counter after I purposely lost her to buy his engagement ring on fathers day, and asked how much it costed just as an example. She is just rude constantly. Anyhow, I love him, but he left me, but, was I wrong? Also, I said that it is not healthy for her to lock herself up in her room constantly. And I don’t think it is. I think he should be a father to her. The girl never smiles. I don’t know, was I wrong for demanding that? That she speak to me in a respectful manner? Is that to much to ask?

Originally posted 2009-11-26 21:44:06. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: About, Dating, parents, Question, single

Is there a dating site for single parents of handicapped children?

Originally posted 2009-11-25 10:02:31. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: Children, Dating, handicapped, parents, single, Site, there

whats the best dating website for single parents?

Originally posted 2009-11-16 05:41:25. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: best, Dating, parents, single, website, whats

Parent’s Involvement in Children’s Education

ABSTRACT

The importance of parental involvement as an accelerating and motivating factor in their children’s education is a worldwide-accepted fact. This research project provides an in depth explanation along with specific reasons, the importance of parents’ involvement in their children’s education. It also discusses the parenting techniques, their types and their consequences if neglected. It also describes the ways to measure the outcome of the positive parental involvement. Furthermore, it mentions the teachers involvement and the difficulties faced by the teachers in getting parents involved in their children’s (this is further supported by the examples of two teachers who with their deliberate efforts won the parents over to devote their maximum attention towards their children), single-parent involvement, children’s own efforts to improve their academic levels and joint home-school based interventions. A detailed analysis of the different main ideas is given, based on the findings from other research surveys and projects.

INTRODUCTION:

Parental involvement can be seen to fall into three types: 1) Behavioral, 2) Intellectual and 3) Personal. The research explores the effect of multi-dimensional participation of parents and the resulting progress of children in their studies when different parental resources were dedicated to them. Actively participating parents help their children in their academic development by going to schools and participating in open houses. By keenly observing the behavior of their children they can rightly judge the kind of behavior or the allocation of resources required by their children. Such caring parents can also motivate teachers to become more attentive towards a particular student, thus maintaining the cycle of parent-teacher involvement. Encourage Building up cognitive and perception abilities in a child are a major concern in the upbringing of the child. The way the parents involve their children in cognitive learning is by exposing them to different cognitively stimulating activities and materials such as books, electronic media and current events at home. This helps the child to practice all sorts of language comprehending skills at the school. The results show a remarkably positive behavior at the school and with peers.

Two parenting processes namely the Supportive Parenting (SP) and Harsh Parenting (HP) helped a lot in the research of parental involvement in their children’s education. By adjusting the levels of supportive parenting, different levels of successful outcomes were observed. Supportive parenting in even kindergarten students yielded positive results. Four measures of supportive parenting were used in the study, they were:

1. Proactive teaching.

2. Calm discussion in disciplinary encounters.

3. Warmth.

4. Interest and involvement in peer activities.

The assessments were conducted when children entered kindergarten and when they reached grade 6. There was a factor noted to hinder children’s development: family adversity. It was the result of a multipurpose negative process that included the risk of low socio-economic status, single-parenting and family stress. Child maladjustments were found to be more common in families with such adversities. No matter how much negative impacts were cast, SP was found to overcome the risks associated with family adversity. SP was strongly related to adjustment procedures in grade 6 children who had single parent family or experienced low socio-economic status (SES) in their early childhood.

In a way to socialize their children, parents adopted the techniques of calm discussion and proactive teaching. They helped lessen the behavioral problems by carrying long discussions with their children, cultivating in them a sense of respect, calmness and peace of mind. Mothers also participated actively in reducing the peer stress among their children. It is also a widely accepted fact that supportive parenting plays an important role in the children’s development of empathy, prosocial behavior and emotional competence. On the negative side, the absence of supportive parenting may be related to the development of internal problems such as anxiety and depression.

Lack of the necessary parental care and attention is the main factor for the subsequent rise in the percentage of juvenile delinquency (crime among children). The absence of parental instructions causes children to develop irreversible behavioral and emotional problems. They in order to seek attention, resort to crimes thinking that in this way they could fulfill their wishes. They may revert to uncontrolled violence if not kept an eye upon. Such criminal activities cannot be brought to a halt until their distressing symptoms of low self-esteem, depression, dysphonic mood, tension and worries, and other disturbances are relieved. And the importance of parents’ role in this regard cannot be over-emphasized.

In an effort to describe parental involvement, many researchers use a term “Transition”(Lombardi, Joan). “Transition” is used to describe the time period in which children move from home to school, from school to after school activities, from one activity to another within a pre-school, or from pre-school to kindergarten. The untiring endeavors of teachers in the phenomenon of transition cannot be ignored. They prepared the children and their parents to face the problems of adjusting to elementary school programs that had different psychology, teaching styles and structure than the programs offered at the kindergarten level. In the elementary level schools the teachers had to face serious challenges in motivating the parents to take interest in their children’s activities. The teachers adopted different methods to involve the parents in day-to-day classroom and home activities. They used to send notes, invitation of parent-teacher meetings, invitation of parental guidance sessions and training sessions, continuously directing the parent’s attention towards their children. Patricia Brown Clark suggests that it is very important to keep the line of communication between teachers and parents open, so that the parents can interact with the teachers and get up to date information of their children’s school activities. One way to involve parents is to schedule school events and arranging classroom activities such as volunteering for libraries, acting as classroom aides or efficiently organizing lunch breaks. The teachers also opt for making phone calls at the children’s houses to keep in touch with the parents and getting to know the extent to which they are contributing towards the welfare of their children. Apart from the above activities, the teachers also assign home activities for both the parents and their children so that the parents remain indulged in their children and the children get to study at home. However, it was a bad and disappointing experience for the teachers when many of the parents failed to respond as expected. Many of the parents were so overwhelmed with their official work that they could hardly take out some time for their beloved children.

Moreover, for some parents their schoolings were not positive and character-boosting experiences, therefore they preferred to keep a distance from their children’s school as well. This made it really difficult and at times impossible for teachers to bring the parental involvement to the desired level. Nevertheless, the activities of two teachers proved greatly fruitful in making parents involved in their children. They were Carlos Valdez, an art teacher and 8th grade class sponsor, and Mike Hogan, the school’s band director. They did it by involving parents in music festivals and other school ceremonies. They proved to be great examples for the future teachers to come.

If the children’s academic development programs are to prove successful they must share two characteristics:

1) Developmentally appropriate practice:

A child’s academic progress is clearly reflected by the appropriate practice he/she administers while in school life. During transitions from pre-school to kindergarten, a child if given the exact developmentally appropriate practice tends to learn a great deal of language and playing skills. He develops a keen interest in exploring his environments and interacting (without hesitation) with his adults.

2) Supportive services:

These include the assistance that the school provides to low-income family students. The services include health care, childcare and community care. This strengthens the relation between school and children and creates a sense of security and confidence among the children. They get to learn that their communities are a part of their school since the school’s supportive services strive to help community development.

It is commonly believed that children are good self-teachers. Their self-initiated strategies help improve their expression, creativity, intellectual capabilities and extra-curricular skills. This idea is proved by the documentation of young children’s work provided by Reggio Emilia :

“The Reggio Emilia educators highlight young children’s amazing capabilities and indicate that it is through the unity of thinking and feeling that young children can explore their world, represent their ideas, and communicate with others at their highest level.”(Edwards, Pope. C, Springate, Wright.K)

The climax rests in the fact that how the parents would know that their sincere involvements are really proving worthwhile for their children. The answer lies in the attitude of the children. The degree of parental involvement can be judged by a child’s attitude towards his school subjects, his academic desires and achievements. There is a direct relationship between academic achievements and the attitude towards school. Schunk in 1981 had the following idea of aspiration or academic desires:

“Level of aspiration is defined as one’s subjective probability that he or she will reach a certain level of education.”(Abu, H. & Maher, M)

As a result children who received adequate parental concern were found to be much more confident in their academic desires and achievements than those who could not get the right amount of parental concern. The individual involvement of mothers and fathers also plays a vital role in the behavioral development of a child. Students from one-parent household were observed to show less positive attitude towards schools and studies as compared to students from two-parent households. One study aimed at investigating parental concern showed that despite mothers’ sincere endeavors, the role of fathers could not be ignored and both served as an important foundation for the future progress of the child. This can be proved from the following fact:

According to a recent report from the National Center for Educational Statistics (1997), compared to their counterparts, children with involved fathers are more likely to have participated in educational activities with their parents (e.g., to have visited a museum or a historical site with their parents in the past month), and are more likely to have access to multiple types of resources at home as well (as measured by the proportion of parents who belong to community or professional organizations, or regularly volunteer in the community). (Flouri, E. And Buchanan, A, Pg.142)

Also, the parental involvement has been discussed and implemented in terms of interventions or prevention programs, which are nothing but safety measures taken to assure healthy and perfect upbringing of the child. The study uses school-based and home-only intervention programs to find out the extent of intellectual capabilities found in children from different family backgrounds. The success of one school-based interventions can be proved from the following fact, which was a part of “Education Service Improvement Plan 2001-2005” of Edinburgh:

—-The Scottish Executive Discipline Task Force, which studied the causes of poor behavior among pupils in schools produced a report of ‘Better Behavior – Better Learning’ in June 2001. The report included 36 recommendations for action, which were then turned into an Action Plan in 2002. Many of these have implications for the Education Authority. (Craig Millar Instep Project)

Originally posted 2009-12-13 22:30:13. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: Children's, Education, Involvement, parents

Current/Former Single parents- Dating?

How much time do you spend away from your child when pursuing a new relationship?

How long do you “feel the waters” before making a decision to continue in the relationship?

And at what stage do you introduce your child(ren)?

Once introduced, how often do you involve them?

Originally posted 2009-11-28 15:47:48. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: Current/Former, Dating, parents, single

7 Tips on How Divorced or Separated Parents Can Make This Holiday Season Less Stressful to Thrive After Divorce

Divorced parents struggle over the holidays to make the season joyous and exciting for their children.

1. Talk to your ex before an event to talk through plans, so you can diminish the enormous pressure children can come under when their parents’ relationship changes.

2. Work out dates, times and transportation schedules then share them with your children, after the decisions have been made. Make the schedule between adults, don’t put the children in the middle of this negotiation or make them choose.

3. Children are more confident when they have a routine and maintaining some of the holiday traditions can be a way of bridging the past and future.

4. Get Real. Be realistic in your expectations – handmade gifts, homemade holiday cards and simple dinners. Pick traditions that are most important to you, create new ones.

5. Holidays can trigger feelings of grief, loss, and remorse – regardless of who ended the situation. Thoughts of “Shouldn’t be like this”. Let your feelings out instead of bottling them up – journal, talk with a friend, and ask for support. (eg. I’ll be needing a dinner invitation).

6. Give your children the gift of being able to love and enjoy both parents. Children do better if there’s cooperation between parents and some continued relationships with extended family so holidays are a great time to foster this.

7. Continue to enforce limits, rules – children need a stable and predictable environment.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2006, 15.9% of all families were single parent households. Nearly one in two divorces in Canada involve children.

Originally posted 2009-12-12 09:41:11. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: After, Divorce, divorced, Holiday, Less, parents, Season, Separated, Stressful, This, Thrive, tips

Job Search Help: The 5 Most Important Gifts Parents Can Give Their New College Graduate

As winter sets in and graduation dates draw ever closer, most parents’ minds inevitably begin to fix upon the ultimate reward for the education they’ve supported; in other words, on that first real job.

Unless your son or daughter has a degree (or destiny) that leads them directly into a specific role – such as doctor, accountant, lawyer, etc – helping them determine what that first position should be can be far more daunting than helping them determine which college to attend. For one thing, there will be never be another time in their career that offers them more opportunity. The new class of college graduates is the single greatest source of management-capable workforce and the largest entrance pool in the nation. Nearly every major corporation in the world provides an clear, accessible entry point to their workforce for this inexperienced yet high-potential recruit. So how do they decide?

The good news is that, as a parent, you can provide far greater support and encouragement in this effort than simply asking “Have you found a job yet?” In fact, you may actually be able to contribute significantly without being seen as meddling or domineering. The five “gifts” below can go a long way in helping your child begin their new career – and could even be the first steps toward building a new, adult relationship.

1. Listening. Your son or daughter has just spent at least four years attending a school to learn an array of material. They have not been groomed to take on a career. In fact, many of their favorite college professors make a point of persuading students to stay in school for more degrees, not leave for a career. So the idea of what they’ll do with their degree has not been top-of-mind. Even if they graduate with a degree in business, let’s face it: They really have absolutely no idea what’s really “out there.” If they’ve spent time in an internship, they’ve most likely experienced a carefully crafted regimen of “responsibility” and socialization exercises designed to evaluate their aptitude for a position within that company – and bring back good PR to the college campus for future candidate recruitment efforts. Who has your students’ best interests at heart? This is where your knowledge of their strengths, passions, character and ideals can be of great assistance. Spend time listening to help them identify and understand their interests, disinterests, tendencies, habits and vulnerabilities. In what environment do they best perform? Do they find value in being a “big fish in a small pond” with a vague job description or would they rather receive specific direction and a precise career path? Do they care more about the product manufactured by the company or the corporate responsibility and community service efforts? Do they crave communication or would they rather be left to their own devices? These questions can help them begin to formulate their own checklist within their own framework of the most desired attributes of a company and a position.

2. Networking. If there’s a “most important life skill” to learn in the business world, networking would be at the top. This is not your Facebook networking; this is the way that people who intend to establish, groom, maintain and grow relationships in a professional world act, treat others and develop a reputation. The best way to begin this process is to introduce your student to professionals you know in many different fields. Your son or daughter has had such limited opportunity to understand what happens in a company, how a company is run, what type of positions are available within most companies, that they have no frame of reference upon which to draw when searching for a job. Encourage them to ask for informational interviews so they can query various professionals regarding their backgrounds and the attributes of their companies. This will give them an opportunity to begin to establish their own relationships. Don’t believe the hype. The number one source of a job is not on the Internet. The greatest odds of landing a job are still determined by who you know and who knows you.

3. Encouragement. Remind your student to utilize the career services at his/her college or university. This office can provide a wide-range of helpful and valuable tools for resume-writing, aptitude testing, interviewing tips and practice, alumni-networking, on-campus interviewing experiences with companies and career exploration events. You have paid for this service with your tuition. In most cases, your son/daughter will be eligible to take advantage of these services forever, not just upon graduation.

4. Perspective. Remind yourself that this is their job search. The perfect job for you is not necessarily the perfect job for them. The fastest-growing trend in entry-level position compensation is establishing healthcare and retirement benefits. This is not due to an increase in twenty-something retirement issues but, rather, the result of the experiences parents often face having an influence on the decisions and biases of their children. Please refrain from encouraging your student to become enamored with a company because you eat their cereal or recognize their name from a television advertisement. There are many, many exceptional companies who’s success is greater than those you might recognize and who could provide a valuable, fulfilling career path in prominent, lucrative fields.

5. Respect. The grueling, repetitive and exhausting lessons in manners and respect that you’ve taught your child are finally going to play a significant part in your child’s job search and success. Everything you’ve taught them – from not interrupting and looking them in the eye to writing thank you notes and not talking with your mouth full – is going to count for something during this experience. Show them the respect that you have taught them to give. Trust me: They’ll respect you for your advice, encouragement and counsel.

Laurie Byrne / Honor Roll Online

Originally posted 2009-12-06 16:13:18. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: College, gifts, Give, Graduate, Help, important, Most, parents, Search, their

Single Parents: Are you apprehensive about dating because of your children?

I am. I know there are good and bad in this world. But, I have two pre-teen girls, and I find myself very over-protective of them.

Originally posted 2009-11-25 07:18:27. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: About, apprehensive, because, Children, Dating, parents, single

Single parents, got any tips on dating? I mean, it’s scary, the stories you hear.?

Statistically, Mom’s new boyfriend is most likely to be the molestor if the kids get molested. Conversely, innocent guys sometimes get their reputations besmirched by a kid falsely accusing him of abuse because the kid wants the boyfriend out of the picture. Plus it’s hard to build a new relationship with the ex is trying to cause problems. You don’t want the kids feeling neglected or slighted but, on the other hand, you can’t just stay celibate until the youngest turns 18, can you? What’s your viewpoint?

Originally posted 2009-11-16 03:35:25. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: Dating, hear., it's, mean, parents, scary, single, stories, tips