Status Report

   Why does the status of "Single Mother"  trump everything else on the face of the earth?  Back in the days of yore, the term single mother was applied to widows, mothers of young children who had lost their husbands to death, frequently in  military service.  Later the term covered  women whose husbands left them.  Then as society no longer stoned, but condoned, out of wedlock pregnancies, a whole slew of single mothers emerged.  So while my sympathies extend to all the women trying to raise children alone,  many of these "single mothers" are dating or living with boyfriends who are not the fathers of their children, so how single are they really?  One woman I knew was married to, and then divorced, a very well off attorney.  He paid full  child support of course, but when she sought employment, she included single mother on her resume, and that seemed to be a plus on her securing a sought-after employment position.     A few weeks ago, the Albany newspaper's advocate  represented a woman who was having a dispute with a utility company.  Primary in her defense was her status as a single mother, but that didn't seem to have any real bearing on her case. Many single mothers do quite well on their own, boyfriend or not.  Today's paper relates the case of a neighbor to neighbor dispute over Wetlands, and one of the parties is a "single mother."   What the heck does that have to do with it?  I'm not even going to go Conservative and point out that a great number of "single mothers"  have multiple children by different fathers, but I know this is true.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  But I'm not looking forward to being bumped in line at the grocery store to yield my place to a mother who happens to be unmarried.  Harrumph!