Contemporary Issues in the Scarlet Letter

Children raised in a household with only one parent normally exhibit many short term and long term qualities that can negatively affect the child’s future, along with the view of himself and others. A child raised with only one parent, for instance, may feel left out in the early stages of school. While most preschool and kindergarten-age children would usually be dropped off for school by both a mother and a father, the child with only one active parent could begin to wonder why he is the only one without a father. With these thoughts in his head, the child may exclude himself from social situations such as playing with other children and making new friends, because he thinks he is not like them. Other children, on the other hand, may notice a difference and ignore the child while playing. This, in turn, could affect him long-term. His self-esteem and social skills may not fully develop if the basic foundation isn’t established. In the preschool and kindergarten stages of schooling, teachers and advisors try their best to involve the parents in as many things as possible. Children feel rejected if they can’t be both parents to school functions for parents like open house.

Children of a single-parent household grow up to not know how to properly maintain their   own household. As a child, one can only know what he observes. Typically, single-parent households are not wealthy ones; therefore, the parent may be working several jobs to keep the family afloat. If he, as a child, observes his single mother working all day to provide for them, instinctively, that is what he will gravitate towards as an adult. The child will not have adequate knowledge of how to balance a career and home life. A child growing up in a single-parent home also does not have the opportunity to be exposed to what a proper relationship between two parents should be like. Because of the child’s ignorance, he may fumble around in relationships for decades, never settling and leading an...