Yes, there are residual pockets of stigma, but single parents are 35% of the parenting population. In my experience, that amount of people do not undertake something if there is a big stigma attached.

I have not been stigmatized for being a single mom. At times I do feel a sense of shame though.

I am a single Mom, but I have not been stigmatized because of it.

I do not know how people at the church I used to attend would feel about it though. I left the church when I was eighteen and do not keep in touch with any of them.

Well, life is really hard for single moms. It just is - it's exhausting and frightening, and one lacks a whole bunch of social and financial support that married moms have -- in fact the rest of society has. So even if there were no stigma, there is certainly stress on that mother maybe to the point that she would feel the pressure of culture as deeply as if there was one.

As a single woman I've noticed all kinds of weirdness I never noticed when I was married. Apparently there's an ongoing danger that I might steal every husband within 100 miles of myself. So..as a single mom I imagine in some circles you're doubly likely to elicit that suspicion, even if it's the very last thing on your mind. It doesn't seem to occur to anyone who thinks this way that the last thing a single woman might want is someone *else's* husband, especially after successfully getting rid of her own.

I think that's what I was trying to say Eva:) I couldn't find a better word than stigma. Lack of support for sure. Which makes no fucking sense.

The thing that really makes no sense is that everyone still seems so surprised by single motherhood. Frankly, for most of history the men obliterated themselves pretty early and left the kids for the moms and grandmoms to take care of for the rest of their lives. Why is society still all bent out of shape over this? Why not just assume it's as normal as it's ever been?