Challenges and Support for Single Father Families in Australia

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Macquarie University *

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3260

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Sociology

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Jun 13, 2024

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docx

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ECHE3260 Assessment 1 PART A: Rationale A single father family is a dynamic that consists of a male who is not married, who cares for and lives within the same household as his minor children. (Lewis, K.,1978) This situation can be caused by a variety of factors such as the male being divorced, separated, widowed, never married or a single adoptive father. (Lewis, K.,1978) This results in the father possessing full responsibility in all aspects of taking care of the dependent children and may be a challenging experience due to multiple factors and reasonings. Due to the increased rate of divorce and failed marriages prevalent within Australia, more and more are children growing up in single parent household dynamics compared to previous times. The family chosen to include within this case study is two children, single father household. Both children are currently in primary school and the father cares for the family consistently without any assistance from another partner. The father is currently self-employed. This family was chosen due to the uniqueness of their dynamic, and they are a great representation of the struggles and challenges that single father families encounter within Australia. Primary research was obtained through a study conducted on single fathers within Australia exploring the potential issues they may face. This data was obtained through questionnaires and interviews and assessed multiple factors such as financial problems, parenting issues, loneliness and providing support. ( Wilson, J., 1988) Results displayed that single father families are prone to increased difficulties including constraints of time and finances, complications in relating emotionally to their children along with feeling a large sense of personal loneliness. ( Wilson, J., 1988) When dealing with single father family households, educators may need to consider certain factors that may impact the children or parents they face. Educators may need to provide extra emotional support to those children who are not

receiving it from their father, or possibly communicate and organise methods in order to compensate and cater for a lack of financial resources. A following study that greatly conveys the challenges faced by single fathers was conducted that featured the stereotypical conceptualisations created by society regarding the inferiority of a man and their ability to care for a dependent child. This investigation examined the ability of a sole mother in comparison to a sole father regarding time management, throughout a range of tasks such as school pick up, dinner time and bedtime. ( Nockolds, D., 2017) Semi structured narrative interviews were conducted in order to obtain this information, and the results revealed that compared to sole mothers, some sole fathers were required to adjust their approach and way of functioning to create a more relational method of managing their time in order to suit the needs of their dependent children. ( Nockolds, D., 2017) This emphasises the challenges that single father families face having to take on complete responsibility, along with the impacts this has on the children involved. When working with single father families, educators need to be aware of the limitations and the struggles that the fathers and the children may face. Children of this family group may showcase regular late arrivals, an increase in absences and a lack of completion of required work provided by their schools. Educators must not allow themselves to become cruel or angry with these children, as it is often not a reflection of the child themselves, yet a representation of the poor environment that they are living in. Educators need to ensure they are extremely understanding of these matters and put measures in place in order to assist these children in supporting them within their circumstances. They may need to display extra emotional support to the child, organise meetings with the parent themselves to discuss time management strategies along with possibly adjusting the time frames in which homework is due to enable more flexibility and leniency for these disadvantaged students.

PART B: Resource Folder SERVICE 1: Before and after school care services As a single parent, one of the biggest challenges faced is often the parents’ ability to manage and organise their time effectively in order to meet all requirements of both them and their children. Due to the significantly increased financial responsibility that is placed on a parent that is caring for children on their own, it is crucial that they can work and generate as much income as possible. After school care services can be a great option for single fathers who are required to work full time, to ensure that their children are still being taken care of while they are not able to devote their time towards them due to other important commitments. These services are available through every NSW government primary school, leaving them extremely accessible and affordable for single fathers. Along with this service being offered through schools, companies such as the YMCA and the PCYC also offer these services externally to government schools. This service can be of great assistance to single fathers just like the household case study example mentioned, as it can enable positive outcomes for both the father and the children. While the father can consistently work full time to generate a stable and steady income for his household, the children are provided with a safe space to go to before and after school hours. This reduces their risk of danger through avoiding these young children having to catch public transport to and from school or walk alone and avoids the father having to sacrifice good relationships with workplaces due to his inability to work all day due to him being required to pick his children up from school. Along with this, children are then able to receive further assistance from education staff with homework needs, which will allow to reduce any chance of falling behind. Overall, this service can work to greatly improve the overall day to day lives and mental health of single fathers, whilst still ensuring that their young children are provided with an opportunity to be kept safe and well looked after as they tend to their financial commitments.

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SERVICE 2: Mensline Mensline Australia is an over the phone and online counselling service that offers free and professional support for men who may deal with struggles and adversities including mental health problems, anger management, family violence, addiction, relationships and issues with stress and wellbeing. It operates anonymously and confidentially and is available for men to contact twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week. This service features a large array of qualified counsellors that possess the qualifications to specialise in assisting those men battling family and relationship issues including relationship breakdown, separation and divorce, parenting, emotional wellbeing and more. Single fathers who may be in a similar situation to the case study family described, can benefit greatly from this service as the impacts of separation can have a detrimental impact on the emotional wellbeing of a father, which can then cause possible neglect and distress to the children involved. This service provides multiple options for a father to receive support, which is highly beneficial and convenient for a single father who undertakes full responsibility of two or more young children as showcased within the case study example. Options include free telephone calls, online chats, and video chats. Mensline Australia offers dedicated and specified support to single fathers and provides advice for a significantly broad range of categories that may cause difficulty in parenting. Some of these include how to effectively communicate with children, how to display positivity around young children despite the lack of another parental figure and insight into how a child may be negatively impacted by a single parent household, and strategies to assist them and promote emotional intelligence. Therefore, this service was chosen as it is a greatly effective source of assistance that provides a great range of information and support for all independent fathers, both addressing the needs of them along with the needs of their dependent children. Along with this, these services are offered in a greatly convenient manner with a large range of options, effectively catering to busy fathers.

SERVICE 3: Department of Human Services – Parenting Payment The government offers an income support payment that is available to single parents who possess complete responsibility for the care of a child below the age of fourteen. Caring for a child requires a significant amount of money and finances in order to support their needs and enable them to receive the best possible opportunity as they progress through childhood and into adulthood. This payment can be extremely useful to single fathers, providing them another source of income that can be utilised in various ways to further assist and financially accommodate for their dependent children. This payment is available to all single parents, as long as the criteria is met. In relation to the case study example family mentioned, a support service like this would be greatly beneficial to this single father due to the nature of his work being self-employed. Not only does this make the father eligible due to his low annual income rate, but self-employment does also not guarantee the same amount of income each week. This can be extremely challenging when possessing full responsibility for young children when bills, school fees and regular week to week mandatory costs such as groceries for multiple people are required. Hence, a support payment like this can greatly reduced the level of stress within a father as they are provided with guaranteed payments that will enable them to feel a sense of relief with the knowledge that they will be assisted with the cost of living. This service requires individuals to apply online through uploading details about their living situation, current income threshold, and the details of their children of which they are responsible for. If all information is approved and results in the single parent being eligible for this payment, they will be provided a set amount each fortnight that is dependent on the information they have provided. Single parents are able to receive up to $970.20 each fortnight. This service was chosen as often within single parents, a large amount of emotional stress is caused due to financial struggle. Hence, with this service, children are able to be better catered for while greatly assisting the emotional and financial wellbeing of the father.

SERVICE 4: Parent Line Parent Line is a service that offers counselling for parents, to provide them with advice regarding issues they are facing with their dependent children. It is a service that is offered over the phone and through email and is available seven days a week. This service focuses specifically on the behaviours and attitudes of children that parents may struggle with and provides these parents with resources and methods on how to better manage their children. Professionally qualified and experienced counsellors are provided to offer expert advice to struggling parents. This service can be highly beneficial to single fathers, as the easily and always accessible counsellors are able to provide a second opinion and further knowledge that a lonesome father may not be able to discover or receive on his own, due to the lack of adults that surround him within his household. This can enable the father to better understand his children and feel more in control of their behaviours. Accessing a service such as this can also enable the parent child relationship to flourish, as the child will feel better understood, and will have less of an urge to possibly rebel and become difficult. This service is a great option for single fathers, as the counsellors provided are able to work with the same family for a prolonged period of time. Hence, this will enable this service to become increasingly effective for the father and the children, as a relationship is built, the counsellor will be able to better understand the issues and struggles that the family faces, and then implement personally recommended strategies that are more effectively catered to the specific needs of the children creating an easier experience for the father. This service is free, making it highly suitable to the case study family mentioned, as it does not add any excess stress and pressure onto the father and the nature of his self-employed income. Due to its extremely easy accessibility, it further makes this service greatly suited to fit into the busy lifestyle and large array of responsibility that the daily life of a single father looking after multiple children would entail.

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SERVICE 5: Parents Beyond Breakup Parents Beyond Breakup is a charity that provides support for single parents who have experienced past trauma relating to a family separation or breakdown. This service provides an emphasis on multiple aspects of single parenthood, also including specific problems faced regarding parent-child contact and parental alienation. This services also greatly considers the mental consequences that individuals may experience during such a difficult time including stress, anxiety, depression, isolation, and suicide. This service is a great option for single fathers as along with providing an always accessible online hotline, in person peer support groups are also offered. This service organises weekly community engagement nights and where single fathers can attend and receive useful information on how to manage as a single parent, along with the ability to meet other fathers in the same position and form new relationships. This can act as more beneficial in comparison to strictly online services, as it allows for an increasingly more engaging experience and an increased opportunity for a single father to feel heard and supported. This service was chosen due to its highly effective nature in reducing the sense of loneliness that a single parent may feel due to its social and in person nature compared to an all-online service. In reference to the case study family mentioned, there is a great possibility that this single father may significantly struggle with their social wellbeing. He may feel as if he does not have an individual that he is able to relate to that surrounds him. This is seen to be the case for a vast majority of single parents due to all responsibilities being placed on them. The lives of single parents are spent completely devoted to their children, with having to conduct all the transport, financial and overall physical care, along with often having to work excessive and overtime hours due to the immense financial pressure and responsibility that is placed upon them. This leaves almost little to no room for time to themselves or enjoyment with another adult. Hence, this service can also act as a solution for that lacking.

Across all the services mentioned, great opportunities and assistance is offered to enable an easier experience in caring for children as a single father. Many of these services including Mensline, the Parent Line and Parents Beyond Breakup are all extremely convenient to access through their primarily online nature, allowing themselves to be greatly suitable for single fathers with busy schedules. Along with this, the constant availability and 24/7 access of these services further ensure the significantly easy access for single fathers. On the other hand, although these factors can create a great experience for single fathers, these males may struggle to effectively connect with and feel significantly assisted by these services. Due to their all-online nature, single fathers may feel as if they provide no ‘actual’ assistance, and that it is just an online gimmick. This may be caused by the lack of in person and close connection that an individual may feel, and the possibility that they may feel as if they are speaking to a robot or a stranger regarding their household struggles. Hence, these factors may limit the effectiveness of these services despite the quick and easy access. Continuing on, the following services mentioned such as the Parenting Payment along with before and after school care services may be perceived as extremely useful to a single father due to the tangible and ‘real life’ aspect of it. Single father households may feel as if they can benefit significantly more from receiving payments rather than just advice, as it is something they are able to utilise to provide for their children and reduce their level of financial stress. Due to males often thinking logically and tending to neglect the emotional aspect of things, they may feel more inclined and motivated to reach for a service like this in comparison to any online support. This same notion may apply to before and after school care services, as it is something that assists them literally within their day to day lives. However, with single father households feeling more motivated to access services like these, their mental wellbeing may still be left within a poor state as they are not provided with any support to address those concerns. Therefore, all services feature both positive and negative aspects.

References Lewis, K. (1978). Single-Father Families: Who They Are and How They Fare. Child Welfare , ………. 57 (10), 643–651. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45393500 Wilson, J. (1988). Working with Single Fathers: Suggestions for Effective Practice. Children ………. Australia , 13 (4), 12–15. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0312897000002071 Nockolds, D. (2017). Working sole parents and feminist perspectives on the intersection of ……… gender and time. Journal of Sociology , 53 (1), 231-244. ………. https://doi-org.simsrad.net.ocs.mq.edu.au/10.1177/1440783316651496

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