This article is from page 3 of the 2013-01-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
ALMOST four in every 10 children born in Clare are born to unmarried parents.
Figures released for the first quarter of 2012 show that there were 430 children born to Clare mothers in the first three months of last year. Of these parents 292 were born to married women with 138 born to unmarried women.
It is likely however, that many of the Clare children born to unmarried mothers are still raised in two-parent families. According to Central Statistic Office figures, a total of 77 babies born to unmarried Clare mothers over this period register an unmarried father living at the same address.
According to lone parent organisation One Family, a variety of different family structures has now become normal and accepted in Clare. New research carried out by the organisation also shows that the biggest issue arising from lone parenting is financial, and not the development and socialisation of the child.
“One in eight children in Ireland are now in a one-parent family so it is becoming much more normal. I think the real pressure on one parent families is very much an economic pressure,” said Stuart Duffin from One Family.
“From a child development point of view, it doesn’t really have an impact. A single parent can give as much attention to a family as a two-parent family and often times the parent in a one-parent family can even be more focussed on their children than a two-parent family.
“We are also seeing other types of families appearing in Clare. We see a lot more shared parenting relationships where people have split up in a friendly way and they can have a different type of relationship with their children than what we might have seen in the past.”
One Family works to provide information to one-parent families in Clare and also has a lot of information for lone parents, shared parents and lone parents who wish to introduce a new parent into a family situation. For more information visit www.onefamily.ie.