History Main / GlamorousSingleMother

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' uses this, but not in the backstory when Lorelai and the infant Rory were taken in by the owner of the Independence Inn, Mia, where Lorelai became a maid. When they first came to Stars Hollow, Lorelai and Rory lived in the inn's potting shed, and it took Lorelai years to work her way up from being one of the maids to being the manager. When the show starts proper, daughter Rory is a teenager and the relatively easy time Lorelei has raising her can be rationalized along those lines. (And of course, Rory was the world's most well-behaved girl to begin with.) It's said by a few people in-series that Lorelai got lucky with Rory, who was never difficult to deal with.
** Lampshaded in an episode where Lorelei is invited to speak at the local highschool's career day about being a successful local business woman. The girls in the class assault her with questions about her infamous teen pregnancy instead of letting her give the speech she prepared. She ends up having to state outright that even though she sometimes wonders how her life could have turned out differently, she would not change what happened even if she could (because she would not trade Rory for anything). She even tries to make it clear that she considers herself very lucky in terms of how things have worked out for her despite her pregnancy preventing her from going to college. Later, [[StepfordSmiler the mothers of the girls]] don't care about the nuance of her response (which hinged on loving her daughter) and ambush her for supposedly "glorifying" teen pregnancy to their daughters. [[MamaBear Lorelei doesn't take kindly to the implication that she should have said she regrets her daughter.]]

* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in ''Film/{{Mermaids}}''. Rachel Flax is an attractive single mother of two and is able to financially support both of her daughters despite working menial jobs (perhaps justified as the film is set in 1963 and it was easier to support a family on a modest income back then.) while also having a healthy sex life. However, she is shown to be a terrible parent. She doesn't cook, feeding Charlotte and Kate nothing but finger foods while treating them more like friends than her children. Rachel's promiscuity has resulted in her and the girls moving dozens of times and Charlotte holds a deep resentment for Rachel, swearing herself to a life of celibacy and dreaming of joining a convent as a way of rebelling against her mother. This all comes back to bite Rachel when Charlotte develops a crush on local handyman Joe and Charlotte doesn't know how to handle it, all culminating with [[spoiler:Charlotte getting herself and Kate drunk, giving herself up to Joe and Kate falling into a river and almost drowning]].

* Mia from ''Series/{{Degrassi|TheNextGeneration}}'' started out as a subversion of this. Then they had her mom somehow find a way to stay home with the kid while Mia became a model.

* Mia from ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' started out as a subversion of this. Then they had her mom somehow find a way to stay home with the kid while Mia became a model.

* Alicia Florrick on ''Series/TheGoodWife'' is a high-powered lawyer, often working incredibly long hours. She is still married, but her husband's not there (he's in prison early in the series; later they're separated) so she acts as single mother. On the other hand, her children are teenagers so they're more independent, but the only problems she ever has with them are about them mildly rebelling.