Just to clear this up:

Single-parent
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"Single Father" redirects here. For the the 2010 BBC television series, see Single Father (TV series).

Single-parent (also lone parent, solo parent and sole parent) is a parent who cares for one or more children without the physical assistance of the other parent in the home. "Single Parenthood" may vary according to the local laws of different nations or regions.

Single parenthood may occur for a variety of reasons. A few possible scenarios are by choice, as in, divorce, adoption, artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood, while others are the result of an unforeseeable occurrence, such as a death, child abuse, child neglect, or abandonment by biological parents.

The living and parenting arrangements for single parents are diverse. A number live in households with family, other adults or alone in home, apartments, condos or government assisted housing. When parents separate, one party, usually the primary parent, has the children the majority of the time but secondary or 'non-resident' parents continue to share some type of parenting time and responsibility, to some extent, with their child.[1]

It is a term that is mostly used to suggest that one parent has most of the day to day responsibility in the raising of the child or children. In western society in general, following separation, a child will end up with a 'primary carer' (the main carer, eg in UK over 90% of the time the mother[2]) and a 'secondary carer', normally the father. In the UK, and U.S.A for example, it is widely practiced, that it is in the 'children's best interests' to have both parents' involvement, encourage each parent to respect the other parents in the children's presence and financial help through child support for the parent that carries the most responsibility when parents separate. Any benefits, tax credits and related government-sponsored assistance are given 100% to the primary carer, if the secondary parent does not have the ability to financially care for their child, thus the child falls 300% below the poverty line of society standards, this can be either mother, legal guardian or father.