Celebrating Single Parents Day 2023

Celebrating Joy

We’d love your help in celebrating single parents by sharing the message that single parents are valued, appreciated. Share stories, quotes, messages, videos or whatever way you would like to spread #SingleParentJoy – This can be about the joy that you have as a single parent, special moments of joy experienced with your child(ren).

Single parent families make up 25% of all families in Scotland. Most of us will know at least one single parent, but sadly we hear from single parents that stigma and judgemental attitudes around single parent families is still an issue.

This is why we’re excited to use Single Parents Day 2023 as a chance to turn that message around and tell people about the amazing achievements that single parents accomplish for themselves and their families every day.

If you’d like to get involved, you can:

• Share this information with your networks.
• Use #SingleParentJoy, #StandWithSingleParents and #SingleParentsDay2023 hashtags.
• Single parents – Let everyone know about something that has brought you joy and you feel good about as a single parent.
• Friends and families of single parents – Tell us about joy brought to you by a single parent of why you are an ally to #StandWithSingleParents.
• Supporters of single parents – Let everyone know why you value and support single parents. This could include a link to services that support single parent families.
• Make sure to encourage the single parents you know to get involved and recognise their own strength and joy.
• Post your messages to your social media channels.
• Follow @OPFS, @Gingerbread, @parentingNI, @FifeGingerbread and @1familyireland, and keep an eye on the hashtags on the day so you can join the conversation and help raise the profile of single parents and #StandWithSingleParents.
• Offline you can let a single parent you know how much you value them. Maybe give them a gift, spend time with them, or help them out with something they would appreciate.

If you would like to chat and have peer support with other single parents across Scotland, please join our forum.

If you have any other ideas on how you could get involved on the day that you’d like to talk to us about, please get in touch.

Week of raising awareness of issues affecting single parents

Unfortunately, it is difficult to focus on single parents joy and achievement without considering the many challenges faced by single parents. That is why we will keep the focus of joy on single parents day, but raising awareness of some of the issues that affect single parents for the rest of the week. A reminder of why we will always #StandWithSingleParents. The rest of the week we will focus on some of the additional issues faced by single parents to raise awareness;

• Wednesday 22 March – Cost of living crisis.
• Thursday 23  March – Childcare.
• Friday 24 March – Disability in single parent families.

Share your messages of joy and standing with single parents.

Use the form below to send us your messages or use this link.