"WINCHESTER, Va. It's 6 a.m. and still dark outside. But Adrienne Rumley's two-bedroom apartment is alive with kinetic energy. A 4-month-old kitten darts around. A big dog patters back and forth. Another cat stealthily watches the morning unfold from behind a chair. A 2-year-old child is sleepily sucking on a pacifier and watching TV. The scene may seem chaotic. But 37-year-old Rumley's morning routine is running in clockwork precision."
"It has to she's the only parent. An alarm beeps every few minutes, keeping her on schedule for her next morning task. Brush her kid's teeth. Put on her work clothes. Dab on a spot of makeup. Get her daughter, Lorelei, ready for day care. "I leave at exactly 7:02," Rumley says. "I don't get stuck behind the school buses. And if you get stuck behind school buses, then you're going to be late.""
"Rumley is among millions of American single mothers raising children by themselves. These moms are likely never to have been married and many don't live with partners. Today, 40% of all babies in the U.S. are born to unmarried women, a dramatic increase since 1960, when they made up only 5% of births. Increasingly, they are women over 30, like Rumley. This group has swelled in number by over 140% in the last three decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Adrienne Rumley runs a tightly scheduled morning routine to juggle childcare, pets and work as a single parent who must leave precisely on time. Forty percent of U.S. babies are now born to unmarried women, up from 5% in 1960, and the population of single mothers over 30 has grown more than 140% in recent decades. Older single mothers are more likely to have full-time jobs, higher education and greater earnings, which contribute to stability, capability and increased ability to make choices about parenting and work-life arrangements.
Read at www.npr.org
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