However, I have to admit that those women who decide to only have children and not get married or even have a serious relationship are a little crazy. I mean, power to them, but it's not something I would choose for myself. Being a mother is a crazy enough thought, but doing it all alone? There was no way I could do it. But this is not the only way single-parent families are formed. Some are caused by divorce or abandonment, others by the death of a spouse. In situations where the mother becomes a single parent with children under eighteen, economic vulnerability is inevitable. More than half of all poor children in the United States live in single-parent, breadwinner households. The reason for this is that women are more likely to be in low-paid jobs, if employed at all. Due to financial uncertainty, both the physical and emotional demands of a single-parent woman increase. Single mothers have a higher rate of depression and lower levels of self-esteem than married women, especially if they are teen mothers who do not have a GED. Single fathers face a very different situation. They are usually better educated, hold higher-level careers, and continue to work in those occupations even after becoming single parents. Similar to single mothers, single fathers also reported having difficulty, in particular, reconciling work and family