The complete list of self-help books I analysed for the aim of my project consists of 30 items. They are all different because they narrate stories of single mothers from various walks of life, with diverse experience and background. Here some of them I classified according to authors’ paths to single motherhood with a brief description of discussed topics:
Divorced Single Mothers
- Adams J. Complete Guide for New Single Moms. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Publishing Group, 2011.
short-term and long-term planning; establishing a support system; health insurance; choosing physicians and medical care to assist with pregnancy and delivery; emotional adjustment and postpartum depression; strategies for adjusting to single motherhood; choosing child care; adjusting job schedule and career options; pursuing further education; co-parenting;
financial issues; asking for help and taking care of herself; co-habiting with another single mother.
- Corder H. The Successful Single Mom: Get Your Life Back and Your Game On! Nashville, TN: Honoree Enterprises Publishing, 2009.
single mothering in a marriage; create a support system and its criteria; quality time with kids; balance inner peace; make a plan and set goals for future; take care of yourself; establishing an every day routine.
- Farr N. I am the Parent Who Stayed: Joyfully parenting alone. London: Practical Inspiration Publishing,2017.
abusive relationship; complete changes of the previous familiar life and identity; the importance of storytelling; standing for values; extending the support network; grieving broken dreams; helping children to emotionally cope with father separation; designing a new life.
- Golds A. How To Be Your Own Boss As A Single Mum. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace, 2014.
social stereotypes about single mothers; loss of money and business through a separation; facing and dealing with emotional distress and guilt; setting up her own business at home; physical abuse; fostering self-confidence and self-esteem; balancing a business and family; legal procedure to set up a business; importance of own needs.
- Hudson H. The Badass Single Mom’s Survival Guide: 21 Life Hacking Tips. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace, 2017.
building a community of people (tribe); different activities for mothers and children; grieving a marriage; staying healthy and bad habits; schedules to control things; making time for herself; teaching children of being independent and self-sufficient; finance and debt issues; career; home-schooling; housing costs and co-habiting; hobby; questioning cultural and social conventions; spending time with child; joy of parenting.
- Johnson E. The Kickass Single Mom: Be Financially Independent, Discover Your Sexiest You and, Raise Fabulous, Happy Children. New York, NY: Tarcherperigee, 2017.
social stereotypes about single mothers; “oxygen-on-the-airplane” philosophy; loneliness and building a support network; self-care; money management; stereotypes that hold single mothers back; outsourcing homework; building a lifestyle a single mother can afford; budgeting and cutting off expenses; planning in case of mother’s death; co-parenting issues; being in love with your own body.
- Pagalday S. Who Will Hold Me?: A Single Mother’s Memoir of Self-Love, Empowerment and Freedom. Milton Keynes: Lightning Source, 2019.
husband’s alcoholism; co-parenting issues; ruinous roles of social stereotypes; liberating herself from society’s unrealistic and detrimental expectations.
- Panettieri G, Hall P.S. The Single Mother’s Guide to Raising Remarkable Boys. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2008.
differences in girls and boys’ physiology; loss of the father on different stages of child’s development; son’s emotional security; development of son’s identity; important talks; upbringing a gay son; teen’s depression and suicide; redefinitions the family concept; male role models; harm of mother’s smothering love; financial issues and budgeting; career issues;
importance and strategies of discipline; strategies of better communication; academic achievement and physical activity; mental and physical health; time for yourself.
- Seney-Williams K. Surviving and Thriving on the Single-Parent Journey: A Step-by-Step Approach. Oxford: Lion Books, 2019.
issues of single parenting; network of supporters; different types of losses; techniques to cope with negative emotions; helping children through separation, divorce and bereavement; emotional, physical, spiritual, and intellectual health; single mother’s well-being; parenting a son; co-parenting issues; financial issues and poverty.
- Smith V. The Single Mum’s Survival Guide: How to Pick Up the Pieces and Build a Happy New Life. New York, NY: Morgan James Publishing, 2014.
abusive relationship; grieving the failed relationship; financial issues; co-parenting after divorce; helping children after the divorce; emotional health; importance of appearance and clothes; healthy and taking care of yourself; establishment of a support network; forgiving your ex partner.
- Welch D. Love Factually for Single Parents and Those Dating Them. Eugene, OR: Love Science Media, 2019.
dating as a single mother; science-based search for a new partner; escaping a dangerous husband with mental issues; rebuilding a new life from the start; communication with an ex-partner; guilt and forgiving yourself; attachment styles; preventing, avoiding, and escaping abuse; babysitting arrangement.
Single Mother by Choice
- Bailey R. Motherhood My Way: Becoming a Single Mother by Choice. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace, 2018.
process of insemination; miscarriage; pregnancy difficulties; talks about a dad; overcoming stereotypes and social pressure.
- Brockes E. An Excellent Choice: Panic and Joy on My Solo Path to Motherhood. London: Faber and Faber, 2018.
lesbian single mother by choice; different types of sperm donors; societal stereotypes and contradictory messages; differences of single motherhood by choice in the UK and the USA; policy insurance in the UK; insemination services in the USA; differences in health systems in two countries; failed insemination; experience of lost pregnancy; health issues during treatment; explaining children their origin; advantage of same-sex family arrangement; discussion of a late-term abortion; C-section experience; lack of men as a role models.
- Hertz R. Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice: How Women are Choosing Parenthood without Marriage and Creating the New American Family. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006.
sociological and anthropological research on single motherhood by choice.
- Kowalski S. Motherhood Reimagined: When Becoming a Mother Doesn’t Go As Planned. Berkeley, CA: She Writes Press. 2017.
career-oriented life and pressure of society; health issues; change of career path and profession; existential crisis; Buddhism practices; sperm donor issues; alternative therapies for fertility; choice of a sperm donor; failed pregnancy; differences in costs of medical procedures in US and other countries; anonymous donors; insemination in other countries; gathering support; health issues during pregnancy; C-section; mistakes in pregnancy testing in a clinic; genetic mother vs biological mother.
- Mattes J. Single Mothers by Choice: A Guidebook for Single Women Who Are Considering or Have Chosen Motherhood. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 1997.
the first self-help book on single motherhood by choice; hardship in making the decision of being a single mother by choice; different types of sperm donors; adoption; accidental conception; financial issues; communication with others; support system; miscarriage; preparations before labour; in the hospital; postpartum period; birth certificate; children’s questions about a father; special child development issues; abuse from a male role model; legal and moral aspects of being a single mother by choice; social life.
- Morrissette M. Choosing Single Motherhood: The Thinking Woman’s Guide. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008.
inner conflict; financial and emotional support; “grieving” the dream; acceptance or disapproval by a community, family and local network; child’s development in a monoparental family; positive and negative mothering strategies; advantage and disadvantage of different paths to single motherhood; conception methods; child’s identity issues; cost of insemination and adoption; different aspects of adoption; day-to-day parenting; dynamics of issues during mothering; dealing with stress; the daddy question; confronting identity issues; learning to raise a well-balanced child; legislative and juridical issues.
- Roberts G. Going Solo: My Choice to Become a Single Mother Using a Donor. London: Piatkus, 2019.
underage pregnancy; miscarriage at different ages; unsuccessful conception; motherly feeling as a biological instinct or cultural construct; exhaustion of pregnancy; declining fertility; (un)importance of child’s donor’s history: genetic and cultural background; age related issues; first months and years after birth without a partner; conversations with a child; controversy for usage of the same sperm donor; professional career after the childbirth; the daddy question.
- Sloan L. Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem: A Tell-All Guide to Becoming a Single Mom. New York, NY: Avery Trade, 2007.
stereotypes about single motherhood by choice; biological clocks and different options to have a child; positive sides of parenting alone; preparations for single motherhood by choice; selection of sperm donor; insemination process; fertility challenges; discrimination of single mothers by choice; risks of known donors; communication with environment during insemination; financial issues; making sacrifices; legal questions; the daddy question; sexual life of single mothers; hardships of pregnancy; hard deliveries and postpartum challenges;
asking for help; unwanted advice and criticism; importance of finding balance; career issues; having more than one child.
- Soiseth A. Choosing You: Deciding to Have a Baby on My Own. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2008.
being fat; friend as a sperm donor; child trauma and relationships with men; different methods of insemination; grieving the death of romance; age related issues; emotional turmoil;
relationships with parents; eating disorder; health issues during pregnancy; preparations before the birth; asking for help; challenges after the birth; illusions about parenting; the daddy question.
Unwed Single Mothers
- Conteh-Mosere S. Single Mother Breaking: The Stereotype. Milton Keynes: ESCIEM Publishing Group, 2017.
juggling motherhood and studies; broken relationship with a child’s father; overcoming stereotypes about a 18-teen single mother; financial issues and family’s support; juggling work and parenting; experience of being sacked and unemployed; renting issues; significant other’s death.
- Isenhart D. Surviving Single Parenting. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2000.
financial plan and budget; mental stability; self esteem; guilt; strategies of stress relief; communication with the child and environment; mothering strategies.
- Nickell A. Confessions of a Single Mum: What It’s Like When You’re Expecting The Unexpected. London: Headline, 2018.
raising a boy; emotional well-being; new-born’s health; recovery from partner’s rejection; overcoming a guilt feeling; social life after the birth; myths about single motherhood;
after birth issues; identity crisis; cost of childcare; dating as a single mother; shifts in friendship; the daddy questions; creating a schedule.
Collections of Single Mothers’ Life Stories
Brown A.E. The Single Mother’s Diary: 10 Women Who Have Defied the Odds of One Parent Homes. Highlands Ranch, CO: Authors Place Press, 2019.
More self-helps books with their detailed descriptions are here: non-fiction.
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