This is the right book at the right time. Single motherhood has been stigmatized and single mothers vilified. And for what? Loving and sacrificing for children?  Louise Sloan gets past the pathologizing and into helping single mothers take care of their kids. This  book is an inspiration for moms with that incredible responsibility of bringing up kids without a partner. Sloan shows the advantages as well as the challenges and gives us a number of ways to get support and do things smarter.  Let’s face it, a huge number of women in this country and all over the world end up raising their children alone for a significant amount of time even if for some, it’s not forever. Also, it tells women, that if you want a child, and you don’t have a partner, having a child by yourself is not impossible. Since many women end up single mothers by default, why should we discriminate against the woman that wants a child so much that she chooses to do it on her own? This book gets past the moralizing and into mentoring. I think it’s got terrific ideas and encouragement for all kinds of mothers and I am delighted to have it in my library.

 

 

                                      professor of sociology, University of Washington

                                      about Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years