Are you a single parent? Then you will understand very well how difficult it is to raise a child as a single parent. It could be equally difficult for the child to deal with the fact that s/he is being raised by a single parent.
One may say being a single parent is not a big deal and most single parents go about their life just the way anybody would. But the reality is that the society and even media sees a family only as a set of father, mother and children. There is nothing mainstream about being a single parent. So if you are a single parent, making your child feel accepted, and accept herself, you need to instill in her a sense of security and confidence that there’s nothing wrong or unusual about her. The best way to do that is through books. Now while there are plenty of children’s books about divorce and separation, a lot of them focus on co-parenting and the separation part. What you need is a book that speaks about the single parent and children being a team, a complete family. So here are a few books that talk about the single parent-child bond.
- Horton Hatches The Egg: This beautiful Dr Seuss book touches upon topics of abandonment, dedication and unconditional love, which is exactly what most single parents wish to discuss with their children. The book is about how a bird leaves her egg under an elephant’s care, and how the elephant hatches the egg and takes care of the young bird.
- The Family Book: If you want your child to understand that there are different kinds of families and it is all okay to be different, then this Todd Parr book is what you need. This sweet and silly book has beautiful illustrations and talks about single parents, step parents, adoptive parents and other different families.
- Love is a family: Now this is one book that every single parent should have. This book by Roma Downey is about a girl who thinks her family of just her and her mother is the weirdest family, and she worries that she will be mocked at a school event for it. Her mother tries to explain that even if they are a small kind of a family, they are a family nonetheless. After seeing different families with different kind of situations, the little girl understands that love makes a family.
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