What are these advantages? Simply put, everything that the single-parent household does not have. Again, this is not to indicate that automatically a single parent home is worse than a two-parent home. But when the parents are involved in their children's lives, are non-abusive, and are relatively happy with each other, then virtually all of the negative effects of growing up in and being part of a single-parent home go away. Often the single parent turns to family members (and in particular their parents) to assist with child-care. "Any parent who can prove that they have brought up their children to adulthood and that said children a) have completed their education, learning something in the process, b) have not died in an accident or through neglect, c) are basically healthy, d) have no criminal record, e) have obtained and maintained employment for a period of one year, should be recompensed with a house, a pension, an OBE and should be ceremonially worshipped (French, 22)." The job of the single parent is difficult. But the life of the single parent child is even harder. The only advantage a single parent child has over his/her parent is the ignorance of the advantages inherent in a two-parent household.

Our society looks at the challenges of single parenthood as the natural results of people choosing to not live with each other, to not have a "healthy" family life, as a choice. As such, our social order does not include support services for single...

However, were those services to be available, it is possible that the majority of the problems associated with single-parenting could be mitigated simply by making small adjustments in the services we offer, the assistance we give, and the acceptance we allow such that the single-parent family can be seen not as an anomaly or as monstrous, but as something that is often a negative influence on the lives of those involved and that it is up to us to help reduce that discomfort.
References

Anderson, Digby. "Dead Issues." National Review. Jan 29, 1996 v48 n1 p49(2)

Bradbury, Bettina. "Single parenthood in the Past." Historical Methods. Fall, 2000. v33. i4. p211.

Carlin, David. "The single-parent trap: how our culture's mindless pursuit of freedom has made us ignore the obvious." Christianity Today, May 16, 1994 v38 n6 p35(2)

Dornbusch, Sanford; Herman, Melissa & Lin, I-Chun. "Single Parenthood." Society. July-August 1996 v33 n5 p30(3)

Home Sweet Home." The Economist (U.S. Edition). Sept 9, 1995 v336 n7931 p25(3).

French, Sean. "A week of single parenthood hasn't provided much in the way of Great Thoughts. But at least I can now see the point of Joni Mitchell." New Statesman (1996). Nov 22, 1996 v125 n4311 p22(1)

Phillips, Angela. "Poor Mum, Poor Kids." New Statesman (1996), June 20, 1997 v126 n4339 p22(2)

Skolnick, Arlene. "Family Values: The…