Creating Success from the Inside Out: Develop The Focus and Strategy To Uncover the Life You Want

I.3. A Different Story

Unfortunately, the statistics tell a different story for most of these kids. Numbers show that 68 percent of black kids have only one parent: their mother. Oh, various men may come and go, or their mom may have a relationship with just one man, but the kid doesn't see them married. They don't see, and often don't feel, the commitment from the odd partner in the deal. Not just from him to their mom, but to them and to their brothers and sisters as well. He's not their "dad," and no matter how good a man he is, the expectation is that one day he'll leave them, abandon them, just like their own father and the others along the way.

There Are More than Just Emotional Disadvantages

Thirty-five percent of single-parent families are living under the poverty level, twice as many as those who are living with two married parents. This means less money for extracurricular activities, for training, for courses, or even for books—less money to help the children financially when they're starting out on their own, to give them a cushion. Every penny goes to basic living expenses. This is an incredibly negative financial change over the last 40 or 50 years. Seventy-eight percent of young people got married in the 1950s. Not only is staying married better from a social viewpoint, it's better in an economic sense. Marriage is almost like its own investment: It's practically a wealth-creating institution. A married man earns from 10 percent to over 40 percent more than a single ...