Media Call Out

Major national women's magazine | 22 June 2012

DEADLINE - 27 June 2012

Seeking a single mother with children born between 2000-2009

The article is comparing the experiences of single mothers over the past 30 years to see what has got better, what has got worse, what has changed, and what still needs to change.

I have profiled a single mother from the 80s, and one from the 90s - and now I am looking for a single mother who had their child in the 00s.

I would need to interview the mother within the week - it shouldn't take more than 30 mins and we can do it by phone. Then I would write up the profile and send it to her to check she is happy with it.

She would only be required to talk about things that she wants - she wouldn't have to, for example, talk about the father or talk about finances, that kind of thing, if she didn't want to. I really just want her thoughts on what she considers to be important issues facing single mothers today.

Also, she would need to be happy to provide a few photos of herself and her child/ren to appear in the magazine.

She can be from anywhere in Australia, and she can be single by choice or by circumstance - the important thing is that the baby/ies must have been born between 2000 and 2009.

And the more opinionated the mother the better!

Media@SingleMum.com.au

What does it mean to be a single mum?Of course, the

kids

are the most important thing in a single mum's life. Kids are the focus and always have been. But along with the children, there are other matters that can confuse a single mum's life.

Centrelink

plays a big part of a single mother's life, mainly because this is where a large percentage of single mums get their finances from. Centrelink are the source from where the

single mother pension

, or as it is otherwise known, the single parent payment comes from. The single mother pension is a subsistence amount, but just the same, it is money to live on, and so it is important, no matter if it is called single parent payment, single mother pension or whatever Centrelink welfare classes it at the time

Often, single mums come out of a
divorce
or defacto relationship only to find that their troubles have just begun, and find that their first step leads them towards Family Law - it's time to engage a lawyer.There are more than just Centrelink finance problems to worry about, as mentioned before, but also

child custody

issues. Child custody is something that hits right at the heart of

single mums

. If a single mother's ex husband or ex partner has been a domestic violence perpetrator, the mum may be greatly worried about child custody. They worry that their kids won't be safe with their spouse, who has already proven to be abusive because they caused

domestic violence

, which resulted in a divorce or separation.

Even so,

Family Court

will often still order a form of child custody named

Shared Parenting

. Shared Parenting is a form of child custody division of time or parental responsibility between the parents. Mother's often look for a good divorce lawyer to try to avoid share parenting with an abusive ex-spouse after divorce, however in many cases Shared Parenting is still the outcome after the divorce, no matter how good the divorce lawyers have been. They will often settle for visitation at a contact centre or access centre where fathers or mothers are supervised during child custody access.

Please remember the bigger font words,because we will use it often in our website.

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