RAISED BY A SINGLE MOM
Are you doomed to failure?

I am so tired of hearing that children raised by single mothers are doomed for failure. Jail. Worse.

I was raised by a single mom. And a married mom. And a single dad. And a married dad. And two step-parents. I was raised by a host of people. However, I lived my life with my mother, and I shared her status, so I can say that I was raised largely by a single mother. And I don't mean to brag, but I do have to say that I am a contributor to my society, a Ph. D., and a good mother myself. I am not a failure.

I became successful despite the fact I was largely raised in a father-absent home.

I am not one to bash fathers. Far from it. I had an excellent father and grandfather. These men loved children, participated actively in the lives of their families, and modeled nurturing love for the next generation. Even though my parents were divorced, my father remained an influence, even at a distance. In addition, I have met children raised by single fathers who have turned out extremely well. Thus, I know from personal experience that fathers are important. But I also know that fathering can come in many forms, and there is no one, single formula for raising successful children. Single mothers can raise successful children, too.

History proves this. Here is a list of successful people from http://www.thelizlibrary.org/ who were also raised in father-absent homes:

Alexander Hamilton - President Gen. George Washington - President Thomas Jefferson - President James Monroe - President Andrew Jackson - President Andrew Johnson - President Rutherford B. Hayes - President Herbert Hoover - President Grover Cleveland - President Gerald Ford - President William Jefferson Clinton - President Barack Obama - U.S. Supreme Court Justice James Wilson - U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Rutledge - John Hancock - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thomas Todd - U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis - U.S. Supreme Court Justice John McKinley - U.S. Supreme Court Ch. Justice (and U.S. Treasury Secretary) Salmon P. Chase - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Melville Fuller - U.S. Supreme Court Ch. Justice Edward D. White - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo - U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas - U.S. Supreme Court Justice James F. Byrnes - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas - Frederick Douglas - Gen. Robert E. Lee - Booker T. Washington - Benjamin Rush - Stephen Colbert - George Mason - Fr. Gen. Marquis de Lafayette - U.S. Senator Henry Clay - William Tecumseh Sherman - Meriwether Lewis - Eleanor Roosevelt - Jackie Robinson - Mark Twain - George Washington Carver - Nathanial Hawthorne - Eli Whitney Jr. - U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hamilton Hoyer - Michael Phelps - Linus Carl Pauling - Aristotle - Nicolas Copernicus - Sir Isaac Newton - Mahatma Gandhi - Leonardo da Vinci - Confucius - Jesus of Nazareth - Queen Elizabeth I - Jean-Jacques Rousseau - William Blackstone - Annie Mansfield Sullivan - Alexander Fleming - Nelson Mandela - Catherine the Great of Russia - Robert Frost - Langston Hughes - Alexandre Dumas - Gen. Alexander Haig - Alabama Governor Bibb Graves - New York Governor Al Smith - Tennessee Governor Sam Houston - Indiana Supreme Court Justice William Allen Woods - U.S. Senator Al Sharpton - U.S. Senator Senator Robert C. "Bob" Smith - U.S. Senator John Ensign - U.S. Senator Bella Abzug - U.S. Senator William Warren "Bill" Bradley - U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Queen Victoria of Britain - Alan Greenspan - Plato - Alessandro Volta - Jim Clark - Ada Lovelace - Jane Austen - George Eastman - Rosa Parks - Roy Wilson Howard - Washington State Senator Paull Shin - Johann Sebastian Bach - Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz - Lance Armstrong - John Lennon - Hans Christian Andersen - Edward Jenner - Giacomo Puccini - Joseph John ("J.J.") Thomson - Bertrand Russell - Hermann Rorschach - Herman Melville - John Keats - Marian Anderson - Garry Kasparov - Sylvia Plath - Leo Tolstoy - Peyton Rous - Benjamin Carson - Raphael - David Hume - Hannah Arendt - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Stephen Crane - Friedrich Nietzsche - Agatha Christie - William Wordsworth - Max Weber - Cleopatra - Jesse Jackson - Audie Murphy - Gustav Theodor Fechner - Edgar Allen Poe - Emile Zola - William Smith - Gerald Bull - Willa Cather - Ritchie Valens - Daniel Dennett - Cass Gilbert - Mary Leakey - Joseph Stalin - Charlie Chaplin - Nelly Bly - Henry Morton Stanley - Max Born - Sarah Breedlove - Frederick Froebel - Steve Allen - Louis Armstrong - Warren Hastings - Allan Pinkerton - Billie Holiday - Hank Williams - Malcolm X - Carol Burnett - Thomas Green Clemson - John Irving - J.R.R. Tolkien - Charles Bronson - Tom Blake - Paulette Goddard - Gene Hackman - Robert Hooke - James Byron Dean - Halle Berry - Benjamin Bratt - Eddie Murphy - Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg - Deborah Sampson - Ralph Ellison - California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird - Eric Clapton - Eamon de Valera - William Reddington Hewlett - J. Marvin Herndon - Mother Angelica - Karl Rove - Julius Caesar - Muhammed - Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick - F. Whitten Peters - Henry Talbot - Arthur C. Clarke - Jim Rogan - Frederick W. Alt - Emil J. Freireich - Willie Nelson - Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Victor - Herbert - Bessie Coleman - Dorothy Andersen - Chiang Kai-shek - Videl Sassoon - Coco Chanel - Anderson Hayes Cooper - James Brown - Kenneth Grahame - Hunter "Patch" Adams - Jack Nicholson - Roald Dahl - William Lloyd Garrison - Douglas Fairbanks - David Harker - Robert Fulton - Irving Berlin - Jonathan Swift - Peggy Drexler - Art Buchwald - Carolyn Jones - Doris Roberts - Loretta Young - Marilyn Monroe - Barbara Stanwick - Steve McQueen - Cher - Pierce Brosnan - Wayne Dyer - Francis Alice Kellor - Sophia Loren - Stephen King - Sir Charles Bell - Whoopi Goldberg - Richard Wright - Percy Spencer - Ward Connerly - Fatty Arbuckle - Katherine Burr Blodgett - Dorothea Lange - Frances Kellor - Gloria Steinem - Gloria Gaynor - Jon Stewart - Bette Davis - Audrey Hepburn - Tom Cruise - Bill Cosby - Barry White - Susanna Harding - Jodie Foster - Patsy Cline - Ed Bradley - Tom Monaghan - Rickey Henderson....

And you can read more . . .