Living with a Single Parent

Stephanie Zvirin

Adopting the interview format she's used successfully in the past, Rosenberg concentrates on one of the year's "hot" topics. There are no adult retrospectives in her roundup this time, but she's done some noteworthy preselection of kids. Ranging in age from 8 to 13, the young people who speak out are not just from homes of divorce. One lives with an unwed mother, another has a homosexual parent, and at least one has had a parent die. The kids talk about difficulties--having to go to therapy, missing a parent who's no longer around--and some, certainly, say that living with a single parent "isn't that great." But these kids are "copers," not "moaners," and their stories, filled with the stuff of everyday life, depict positive adjustments as well as the different ways kids handle their feelings. There are, however, so many profiles here (17) that the voices begin to sound alike despite their individualizing details (it's "Mom" and "Dad," rarely "Mommy" or "Pop"). Rosenberg's suggestions for coping, included in a final chapter, are rooted in common sense and pivot on opening lines of communication. Appended: a list of guidelines for living with a single parent; bibliography; sources of help.