SINGLE-PARENT FAMILYWhen Annette P. Tippetts and her husband divorced four years ago, she learned first-hand about the stress researchers have been discovering in an ever-increasing number of American single-parent families - most of them headed by women.
First was finding a job. Annette said she spent four months looking for a job until she settled on a night position to support her daughters, Chelsea and Megan. Like many women who become heads of families, it is a constant struggle to make ends meet.
"It's not very easy. We are living day to day, but we get through it. We just have to be strong enough to make it through the next day," she said.
Today, Annette considers herself lucky to have a job in the data processing department of Newspaper Agency Corp., the distributor and advertising arm of the Deseret News. But the stresses haven't ended.
Child care is top priority for single moms. For Annette it means spending $380 a month to keep her daughters enrolled at a child-care center. Along with the child care, there's also the monthly food bill and rent of an apartment in Salt Lake City. She said she couldn't make it without the help of family and neighbors.
The product of a traditional family, Annette said it was difficult for her family to understand her divorce. She said at first it was difficult for her to go to family gatherings with her children.
"It took a long time for them to understand what was going on," she said.
To help deal with the stresses, Annette said she has become active in sports and finds ways to have time with her daughters - inexpensively.
She said she and her girls still cling to the ideal family as one with a dad and a nice house. She said her girls miss a man around and "eat up" the time with dates she brings home.