Single Parents Face Challenges

Carlos Esteves, Staff Reporter

Jamie Cabatbat is a single mom with three kids and relies a lot on her own income to support them. Jamie says life as a single parent is very hard, and when questioned about her sources of income she replied with “I work multiple jobs.¨ Working multiple jobs is not an easy job for most people, let alone a mother living on her own with her three children. 

Cabatbat says the hardest part about being a single parent was learning to adapt and survive; not only for herself but with her kids too. She also said it helped to not only learn from her mother and the more experienced mothers and fathers around her but also get help from the kids’ families such as their aunts and uncles. Her children’s fathers do pay child support and they do get to see their fathers but she has full custody of her 15 and 16 year children along with having primary physical custody over her 7 year old daughter. Cabatbat has struggled to stay afloat with her children and knows there are other women out there that have to go through the exact same thing, she says community support is essential for single parents.