Single Parenting - Many single mothers do a great job parenting their babies. Often, those who do well raising and providing for their children have a solid support system in place. This type of help may include your immediate family, relatives, friends, and church family. Assistance can come in a variety of ways including emotional and financial support, safe housing and child care.

Relying on outside support is especially helpful for single moms who struggle with the ups and downs of daily life. We're not saying that parenting is easy - it isn't. It will require changes in your lifestyle, a great deal of self-sacrifice, and can create long-term challenges. However, parenting can also be the biggest reward of your life.

Marriage - Children raised by a married mother and father benefit emotionally, educationally, and financially as well as in a number of other ways. Social science data is clear on the merits of marriage for parents and their children. Data also reveals the negative influences involved in less committed parenting relationships.

Marriage is a publically honored commitment between a man and a woman. It is a union that creates many obligations and benefits including the sharing of resources between the married couple and their offspring.

Cohabitation/living together - In this sort of parenting style there is less of a commitment to the family relationship. Couples who live together often have lower stability and relationship quality, and a higher level of disagreement.

Only 30 percent of couples who live together actually get married.¹ And those that do break up at an increased rate of 80 percent higher than couples who didn't cohabitate.²

1. John D. Cunningham and John K. Antill, "Cohabitation and Marriage: Retrospective and Predictive Comparisons," Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 11 (1994). pp. 77-93

2. Ibid.