LoveGeist 2010: Can Single Parents Find Love Again?

Single parents face countless challenges, from financial difficulties to the stigma of parenting without a partner.

Being a single parent is losing its taboo, as "falling marriage rates, the growth in the number of people choosing to cohabit rather than marry, and a variety of other socio-economic factors" have combined and caused the number of single parents to rise significantly in recent years. Maintaining a healthy romantic life, however, is still an insurmountable obstacle for many single parents. Nicola Lamond, a mother and the spokeswoman for Netmums, an online parenting organization that offers local parenting information for mothers and fathers in the UK, offers a fairly bleak description of single parenthood: "being a single parent in 2010 can be pretty tough. Single parents describe themselves as 'lonely,' 'isolated,' 'vulnerable,' and 'worthless'....T here is a real sense that their 'world has shrunk.'"

Data from the 2010 LoveGeist Report supports Lamond's dreary outlook. Single parents feel that they are faced with an extremely difficult situation, and exhibit a strong sense of frustration with their circumstances:

• Close to 70% of respondents said that they do not have the opportunity to meet new people in their everyday lives, and a poll conducted by Netmums backs up LoveGeist findings. 80% of Netmums users reported not having time to go on dates, and just 7% said they are able to go on a date once a month.
• 46% of parents said that they wouldn't want their children to worry if a new relationship didn't work out.
• Confidence is a major issue for single parents, who often fear that the rules of dating have changed since they were last single. As Lamond explains: "For many parents, the last time they dated they had the confidence of youth and the bodies to match.... The prospect of baring your all to a new partner can be a pretty daunting prospect!" Single parents also carry deep emotional wounds that can hinder the development of new relationships. It is difficult for many to believe that they are worthy of love after a significant relationship has ended.
• Perhaps most importantly of all, 53% of those polled believe that their children are simply more important than meeting a new partner. The need to prioritize one's life in this manner is often more pronounced in single parents, who are more driven to "find the right balance between doing what's right for them and what's right for their children" than their attached counterparts.

All that being said, however, the outlook for single parents seeking romance is not entirely dismal. LoveGeist research shows that, though single parents have endured negative experiences with relationships in the past, they are not opposed to marriage. Only 13% responded that they would not consider marriage in the future, the same percentage as the wider dating population, and only 20% worry about what their children might say about them dating again, a finding that suggests that "parents are confident their kids will demonstrate some level of understanding and encourage them to find happiness again."

Technology has played a massive role in helping single parents find new partners. "Not only are online support groups available that encourage taboos to be broken and new communities of like-minded people in similar situations to spring up," writes Robin Nixon, "but of course access to online dating enables many singles to take the first step on a journey that may not have been open to them even 10 years ago."

For more information on this United Kingdom dating site, please check out our review of Match.com in the UK.