Single Parent Week 2024

Recognition

Single parents are often too busy juggling everything they have to do to get through each day. There is rarely time to stop and reflect. We want to give recognition to the resilience of how tough, yet rewarding being a single parent can be.

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 2024 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.

In acknowledgement of the fact that there are significant inequalities facing single parents which need to be addressed if we truly want to celebrate and value single parents, we and our partners around the UK and Ireland have decide to focus on a series of themes:

• One Family will launch and introduce the week with a podcast discussion about the theme of Recognition, with OPFS, Gingerbread, Parenting NI and Fife Gingerbread on Friday 15 March.
• The rest of the week will continue with #SingleParentRecognition of….
• Financial Inequality on Monday 18 March.
• The need for Childcare on Tuesday 19 March. Single parents perspective about the need for childcare in our latest blog.
• Mental Health & Wellbeing on Wednesday 20 March.
• Community & Connection – Connect with a cuppa’ – Celebrating and recognising everything about single parents for Single Parents Day on Thursday 21 March.

How you you can get involved:

• 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 with #SingleParentRecognition.
• Download our images and suggested posts here, using #SingleParentRecognition, #SingleParentWeek and #SingleParentsDay2024 hashtags.
• 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.

Connect with a cuppa

Many single parents often tell us they feel lonely. This year for single parents’ day we are inviting you to take some time out your day to connect with a cuppa.

We know that not many parents do not have friends and family nearby, so it’s difficult to connect face to face. Take some time to yourself out of your busy day to relax with a cuppa tea or coffee, or whatever you prefer to drink. You could arrange a time in advance to speak with a friend and have a catch-up. If you do have people you can connect with locally that you have been meaning to reach out, this could be a good excuse to reach out and arrange a date.

Check out our blog post for details of celebrations at our local services, for Single Parents Day.