Actress Jennifer Aniston recently made a statement in regards to single motherhood. She said while promoting her film, “The Switch” , “Women are realizing… that they don’t have to settle with a man just to have that child. Times have changed and… what is amazing is that we do have so many options these days, as opposed to our parents’ days when you can’t have children because you have waited too long.”
To which political commentator Bill O’Reilly responded, “She’s throwing a message out to 12-year-olds and 13-year-olds that, ‘Hey you don’t need a guy.’ You don’t need a dad. That is destructive to our society.”
Celebrity mom Mary Louise Parker has this to say about O’Reilly’s statement:
“I don’t think you necessarily have to be part of a traditional nuclear family to be a good mother. A lot of children from traditional nuclear families have really unhappy childhoods, and they have dysfunctional, distant parents who don’t pay attention to them. Also, some people don’t plan on being single parents. It’s not like you’re sitting at home and thinking, “Wow, I’d really like to do this by myself. I’d love to wake up six times a night and change diapers and have nobody to help me. That’d be great!” I certainly didn’t do that (Vanity Fair, 2010).”
What do you think? Does Bill O’Reilly have a point?
Photo shows Mary Louise Parker, who is a single mom, and her daughter
