History Main / StrugglingSingleMother

* Much of the drama in the fic, ''Secret Sunshine'', comes from this. Though Kiko is her niece, Ryuuko plays this role, her struggles are balancing having to care for Kiko, herself, finances, and doing her job at a daycare, along with having little help, besides checks sent from Satsuki. This is best noted with her weight, as, due to not having much time for herself (between caring for Kiko and job) and not having anything else to do, she just ate and, when funds got low, she practically starved, spending what little she had on Kiko.
* An essential part of Hawks' backstory in ''FanFic/CrimsonAndEmerald''. After his mother Kiyome was widowed, she struggled to support her and her son. People didn't want to hire a single mother with a young child and Kiyome struggled to make ends meet. Something which the Heroics Commission make advantage of when they approach Kiyome to obtain the future Hawks.

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
* Hana in ''Anime/WolfChildrenAmeAndYuki''. She falls in love with a mysterious man who is actually a WolfMan and they have two children who inherited their father's wolf lineage. When the father dies in an accident, Hana is left to take care of the children. The first part of the film shows her struggling to keep her children's wolf lineage a secret from outsiders particularly from the social services. Eventually, she moves to the remote countryside where she manages to make amends for her family and her children are able to roam freely.
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* Much of the drama in the fic,''Secret Sunshine'', comes from this. Though Kiko is her niece, Ryuuko plays this role, her struggles are balancing having to care for Kiko, herself, finances, and doing her job at a daycare, along with having little help, besides checks sent from Satsuki. This is best noted with her weight, as, due to not having much time for herself (between caring for Kiko and job) and not having anything else to do, she just ate and, when funds got low, she practically starved, spending what little she had on Kiko.

* Much of the drama in the fic,''Secret Sunshine'', comes from this. Though Kiko is her niece, Ryuuko plays this role, her struggles having balancing having to care for Kiko, herself, finances, and doing her job at a daycare, along with having little help, besides checks sent from Satsuki. This is best noted with her weight, as, due to not having much time for herself (between caring for Kiko and job) and not having anything else to do, she just ate and, when funds got low, she practically starved, spending what little she had on Kiko.

* Much of the drama in the fic,''Secret Sunshine', comes from this. Though Kiko is her niece, Ryuuko plays this role, her struggles having balancing having to care for Kiko, herself, finances, and doing her job at a daycare, along with having little help, besides checks sent from Satsuki. This is best noted with her weight, as, due to not having much time for herself (between caring for Kiko and job) and not having anything else to do, she just ate and, when funds got low, she practically starved, spending what little she had on Kiko.

* Played with in ''Film/TheBookOfHenry'': Henry's mother Susan is by-and-large portrayed as a struggling single mother, working at a diner and driving a shabby car. However, she is explicitly doing fine financially and after her son's passing, she learns that he made thousands of dollars in stocks under her name. The struggling single mother aspect seems to be TheArtifact, given there had been almost two decades between the script being first written and the film finally being made, with constant rewrites in between.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', Vidalia is implied to have been one of these when she first gave birth to Sour Cream.

* Hana in ''Anime/WolfChildrenAmeAndYuki''. She falls in love with a mysterious man who is actually a WolfMan and they have two children who inherited their father's wolf lineage. When the father dies in an accident, Hana is left to take care of the children. The first part of the film shows her struggling to keep her children's wolf lineage a secret from outsiders particularly from the social services. Eventually, she moves to the remote countryside where she manages to make amends for her family and her children are able to roam freely.

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
* Played with in ''Film/TheBookOfHenry'': Henry's mother Susan is by-and-large portrayed as a struggling single mother, working at a diner and driving a shabby car. However, she is explicitly doing fine financially and after her son's passing, she learns that he made thousands of dollars in stocks under her name. The struggling single mother aspect seems to be TheArtifact, given there had been almost two decades between the script being first written and the film finally being made, with constant rewrites in between.
* Olivia starts out ''Film/{{Boyhood}}'' struggling to make ends meet and to balance taking care of her two kids while also working. She goes through a string of bad relationships, but eventually goes back to school and turns her life around.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'':
** ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' establishes Sally Jackson as one. The reason she's single is that the father of her child is Poseidon, one of the gods who's specifically forbidden from bearing children. [[spoiler: She eventually gets a break when she launches her writing career, remarries, and has another child, Estelle.]]
** In the SequelSeries, ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', Leo's deceased mother was one of these; she'd spend her days working as a mechanic to support Leo while the latter was growing up.
* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Firestar's Quest'', Clover starts as this, explaining that her mate left her before her kits were born and that it's hard raising them on her own; it's why she's so eager to join the new Clan after Firestar and Scratch save her and her kits from a fox.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Near the end of the show, [[spoiler: Skyler]] becomes one of these as her husband [[spoiler:is on the run from the law after his drug empire is exposed.]] She's forced from their home to a small apartment with two children, a disabled teen and a baby. Things are going to improve however as [[spoiler: Walt plans a way to ensure his family gets his remaining money in a way that seems legitimate.]]
* Implied with Phoebe's mother Lily in ''Series/{{Friends}}'', who "didn't have a lot a money" and according to Phoebe, was a drug dealer.
* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': This is part of Lorelai Gilmore's backstory. In the pilot, she is a manager of the Independence Inn and fairly well-off, but when she left her super-rich parents with a baby at 16, she started to work there as a maid and had to work her way up. She and her daughter Rory lived in the inn's potting shed. When the series starts, Rory is a teen and they have an extremely close bond.
* In ''Series/StrangerThings'', [[ParentsAsPeople Joyce Byers]]. She's divorced and has been working at a convenience store for the past ten years to support her sons Jonathan and Will, who she apparently has healthy relationships with.
* Played straighter than it actually should have been in season three of ''Series/{{Supergirl}}''. Sam might be a single mother, but given that her job was acting CEO of [[{{Fiction500}} L-Corp]], she should have easily had more resources available to help her take care of her daughter, Ruby.

[[folder:Music]]
* "Rockabye" by Music/CleanBandit is about a single mother trying to make ends meet at a [[SingleMomStripper strip club]] to support her six year old son.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/LesMiserables'': Fantine struggles to earn the money that the [[BabysitterFromHell Thenardiers]] demand to care for her daughter, Cosette. [[FromBadToWorse Things get even worse]] after she gets fired, which leads to her selling her necklace and hair, and [[SingleMomStripper finally becoming a prostitute]]. She dies not long after, after Jean Valjean promises to adopt Cosette as his own.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Lorraine of ''VideoGame/ThePark'', who is a single mother to her son Callum after the death of her boyfriend during a construction accident. She's spent Callum's entire life struggling both financially and emotionally.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': Rosa is a young woman in the flower of her thirty years, back from [[FreudianExcuse a rather troubled childhood]] and [[RepressedMemories a trauma from which she has never fully recovered]], whose life has taken a rather problematic turn since her daughter's father left her 9 years ago while she was still pregnant after they both got into debt with some loans. Despite being the owner of a design company based on selling occidental clothes and accesories, her business does not go as she hopes and struggles to make money to pay off her former partner's debt. In addition her daughter Maria is a [[SpoiledBrat rather]] [[AmbiguousDisorder problematic]] [[CreepyChild child]] and often and willingly [[TroubledAbuser Rosa can not not physically and emotionally discharge all the stress accumulated over the years]] [[AbusiveParent on her when Maria does not obey her]].

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* Adrian in [[http://rickgriffinstudios.com/comic-post/ah-club-1/ah-club-1-page-1/ A&H Club]], in the first chapter she and her son Ali are living in her car after being evicted from their apartment, she also mentions she had to keep Ali in a closet because she couldn't afford a crib.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', Vidalia is implied to have been one of these when she first gave birth to Sour Cream.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollhunters}}'', Jim's mother has been raising him alone since his father left the family. In this case, she doesn't really seem to be struggling to make ends meet, but is nonetheless extremely overworked.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder: Literature]]

** ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''establishes Sally Jackson as one. The reason she's single is that the father of her child is Poseidon, one of the gods who's specifically forbidden from bearing children. [[spoiler: She eventually gets a break when she launches her writing career, remarries, and has another child, Estelle.]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Music]]

[[folder: Visual Novel]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[/folder]]

* Lorraine of ''[[VideoGame/TheSecretWorld The Park]]'', who is a single mother to her son Callum after the death of her boyfriend during a construction accident. She's spent Callum's entire life struggling both financially and emotionally.

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': Rosa is a young woman in the flower of her thirty years, back from [[FreudianExcuse a rather troubled childhood]] and [[RepressedMemories a trauma from which she has never fully recovered]], whose life has taken a rather problematic turn since her daughter's father left her 9 years ago while she was still pregnant after they both got into debt with some loans. Despite being the owner of a design agency based on selling occidental clothes and accesories, her business does not go as she hopes and struggles to make money to pay off her former partner's debt. In addition her daughter Maria is a [[SpoiledBrat rather]] [[AmbiguousDisorder problematic]] [[CreepyChild child]] and often and willingly [[TroubledAbuser Rosa can not not physically and emotionally discharge all the stress accumulated over the years]] [[AbusiveParent on her when Maria does not obey her]].

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': Rosa is a young woman in the flower of her thirty years, back from [[FreudianExcuse a rather troubled childhood]] and [[RepressedMemories a trauma from which she has never fully recovered]], whose life has taken a rather problematic turn since her daughter's father left her 9 years ago while she was still pregnant after they both got into debt with some loans. Despite being the owner of a design agency based on selling occidental clothes and accesories, her business does not go as she hopes and struggles to make money to pay off her former partner's debt. In addition her daughter Maria is a [[SpoiledBrat rather]] [[AmbiguousDisorder problematic]] [[CreepyChild child]] and often and willingly [[AbusiveParent Rosa can not not physically and emotionally discharge all the stress accumulated over the years on her when Maria does not obey her]].

* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': Rosa is a young woman in her thirty year old flower, back from [[FreudianExcuse a rather troubled childhood]] and [[RepressedMemories a trauma from which she has never fully recovered]], whose life has taken a rather problematic turn since her daughter's father left her 9 years ago while she was still pregnant after they both got into debt with some loans. Despite being the owner of a design agency based on selling occidental clothes and accesories, her business does not go as she hopes and struggles to make money to pay off her former partner's debt. In addition her daughter Maria is a [[SpoiledBrat rather]] [[AmbiguousDisorder problematic]] [[CreepyChild child]] and often and willingly [[AbusiveParent Rosa can not not physically and emotionally discharge all the stress accumulated over the years on her when Maria does not obey her]].

-->-- ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheLightningThief''

* Sally Jackson in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. The reason she's single is that [[spoiler: the father of her child is Poseidon, one of the gods who's specifically forbidden from bearing children. She eventually gets a break when she launches her writing career, remarries, and has another child, Estelle.]]
** In the SequelSeries, ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', Leo's deceased mother was one of these.

This trope is almost AlwaysFemale, but can occasionally manifest in males.

Often TruthInTelevision. See {{Housewife}} and GoodParents. For an inversion, see GlamorousSingleMother. May result in SingleMomStripper.

[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

This is a common incarnation of the struggling single mother. This trope will usually involve just one child, usually a son. [[GoodParents The mother and son usually have a very close relationship]], perhaps with occasional bickering. If Mom has multiple kids, it's more likely she'll [[ParentsAsPeople have a more distant relationship with each, though she'll still try her hardest]].

* ''Theatre/LesMiserables'': Fantine, of course. She struggles to earn the money that the [[BabysitterFromHell Thenardiers]] demand to care for her daughter, Cosette. [[FromBadToWorse Things get even worse]] after she gets fired, which leads to her selling her necklace and hair, and [[SingleMomStripper finally becoming a prostitute]]. She dies not long after, after Jean Valjean promises to adopt Cosette as his own.