UK Relents on Father’s Name on Birth Certificate

A measure that would have required all women in the UK to supply the name of a baby daddy in order to receive a birth certificate for their child has been abandoned.

And single mothers who don’t want anything to do with the sperm provider breathed a big sigh of relief. Continue reading »

Drunk Dad Makes Kid Pick Out a New Mom

A drunk dad took his seven-year-old out on the town to score some chicks. The boy’s job? To find a new mommy.

And when the women rebuffed him, the kid started crying on cue. Continue reading »

Dad Hires Actor to Tell Kid Dog is Gone

We have a new winner in the really crappy parenting category: a jobs examiner blogger found this piece of work on Craigslist. A dad is advertising for an actor to take their dog for a walk, then come back and tell the kids the dog took a hike. Continue reading »

Is Non Custodial Mothering the New Way to Parent?

You’d think non-custodial mothering is all the rage. It’s certainly getting a lot of attention.

The Spring 2009 Brain, Child magazine ran a piece on non-custodial mothers, the challenges they face, how they make it work.

The Today show recently interviewed several mothers who gave up custody of their young children, both of them saying they faced judgment and questioning few men have to endure when they turn the kids over to their mothers.

Bitch magazine picked the Non Custodial Parent Community blog for its featured blog section.

Then there’s the non custodial mom story I’m totally absorbed in over at Literary Mama. There, former Strollerderby blogger Karen Murphy writes about walking away from her three kids almost exactly a year ago. Not only did she relinquish custody to her ex-husband, but she moved 3,000 miles away from them, too. She’s only seen them once since their first good-bye. The rest they leave up to phone calls, emails and texting. Continue reading »

Advice Columnist Says Single Parents Can’t Become Doctors

Your whole life may change when you become a parent, but according to an advice columnist peddling herself as “The Career Doctor” (trademarked name, apparently, but I can’t do the TM), single parents should just stop dreaming. Immediately!

Says Jacqueline Hornor Plumez, Ph.D., if you’re a single parent, don’t bother applying to medical school. You can’t hack it. Continue reading »

No Cash for Kid Born from Dead Man’s Sperm

A mom who opted to have her husband’s sperm collected post-mortem won’t be getting any financial help from the government to raise her.

Gabriela Vernoff’s husband died in an accident in 1995, but she had his sperm extracted and frozen so she could have their baby four years later, in 1999. Now, ten years later, she’s been told she cannot collect Social Security benefits on the dead man’s child because she wasn’t a dependent during his life. Continue reading »