There are countless reasons why somebody may become a single parent, almost all of which are perfectly valid. Sometimes a partner passes, wasn’t even in the picture to begin with, or a relationship just doesn’t work out well enough to weather the ups and downs of raising a child. Raising kids is far from easy, so in many ways it is admirable to be willing to do it alone.

Of course, this doesn’t stop some people from choosing to be judgmental about parents who have had to raise their children without a partner. There are individuals who simply refuse to get their head around kids being brought up in a household that doesn’t have both a mom and a dad, even though it is not an uncommon phenomenon nowadays. With these types, the idea of a blended family isn’t even worth thinking about. They don’t want to entertain anything too different.