Book Sale

Thursday, 5 February 2026

Single Mothers and Sons

 


This boy is a hero. He deserves a medal. I hope someone starts a go fund me so that he can live in luxury for the rest of his life, or at least so that he can get a really good headstart as a reward for his actions. An incredible young man:

“A 13-year-old boy has been hailed as a hero after swimming 4 kilometres through rough waters for help after his mother and two siblings were swept out to sea off Western Australia's South West.

The family were holidaying at Quindalup, 250 kilometres south of Perth, when their inflatable paddleboards and kayak were pushed offshore by strong winds on Friday evening.

The 13-year-old tried to paddle back to shore on his kayak before it took on water in rough seas.

He then swam for four more hours to shore and successfully raised the alarm.

Naturaliste Marine Rescue commander Paul Bresland said the 47-year-old mother, her 12-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter were eventually found at 8:30pm, clinging to a paddleboard after drifting about 14km offshore.”[1]

This a remarkable account of human perseverance and physical determination.

Yet there is another story within this story, one that many are not touching: the impossible burdens single mothers often put on their sons. Now, I do not know if the mother is single or if the father/husband just was not there, still this story is illustrative. You see, either way, this is a common trait of single mother behaviour. When there is no man in the house to lead, provide and take the protective role, all that burden is often put on the eldest son or the sons.

This is one of the reasons that sons of single mothers grow up with serious anger issues. This is one of the reasons that sons of single mothers are over-represented in jail. In this situation the massive burden this woman put on her son paid off. Much of the time, though, that is not what happens. Very often such sons are weighed down by the burdens their mothers put on them. This has been observed again and again.

Society, in general, is loath to criticize single mothers. As I said, I don't know if she is single or the husband/father was just not there. But this serves as a powerful illustration of what many single mothers do when the husband/father is not there. And this is a cause of many of our ills in society. 

Our society is going to continue to decline if we keep enacting policies that make single mothers the norm, rather than a rare exception.

List of References

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