A few weeks ago, I posted this video to my Facebook page. After telling me the story, a co-worker had forwarded the video to me. I already knew what was going to happen, and this was a laugh-out-loud, tears-in-my-eyes kind of funny.
And I don’t laugh at much.
This Aquinas College professor has a cell phone policy: if your phone rings in class, answer it on speakerphone.
One Facebook friend commented, before sharing the video on her own feed:
Best April Fools EVER!!!!!
I sure thought it was. But was it?
Teen pregnancy and single-parent households are a serious concern. For single parents (moms and dads),
If you graduate from high school, work full time, and postpone marriage and childbearing until after the age of 21, your chances of being in poverty are only 2 percent. If you don’t do all of those three things, your chances of poverty rise to 77 percent.
– The Brookings Institution
The Commonwealth of Virginia has 262,188 single-parent households, and nearly 20% are single dads.
How can we help?
First off, thank this Aquinas College professor for providing a good laugh and for raising up conversations we need to have.
Second, if you know a single parent or a pregnant teen, support them. Adopt them as an extended part of your family. A sick child means time off from work, sometimes not getting paid.
Single parenting means work during the day and parenting at home in the evening, if not working a second job to make ends meet. Support networks mean evenings out with friends, even if the kids are there, too.
Single parenting means only one income, usually quite low, to cover housing, food and other necessities. According to the USDA, 40% of single-mom households are food insecure (they don’t know where their next meal will come from).
Sometimes, it takes a village. Let’s be the village.
