Interdependence, parenting and responsible citizenship

Single parenting rarely is seen in its fullest sense-as a social, economic, political, policy, and gender concern. My attempt to address single parent ing as fully as possible is to situate it in the context of citizenship. A central task of any society is to produce responsible citizens. Accordingly , I respond to the escalation of single parenting by examining the conditio ns under which single parenting does or does not foster responsible citizen ship. I develop three main arguments. First, I maintain it is necessary to work out what sorts of values best encourage the sort of traits in family l ife that allow decent communities to flourish, irrespective of family struc ture. Second, I contend that interdependence is a feature of responsible ci tizenship-it highlights the ways that independence requires dependency and nurturance in our intimate lives and results in the connectedness of citize ns in our socio-political lives. Third, I argue that shared parenting can a ccommodate flexible family forms, the responsibilities of mothers and fathe rs, and develop an interdependence that provides meaningful substance to bo th family and citizen life. Before developing these arguments, I outline th e relationship between divorce, single motherhood, and poverty.