It’s Getting Harder To Be A Single Mom In Colorado

COLORADO – By Alex Burness for The Colorado Independent. Kayla Frawley said she felt “lucky” when she was hit by a car and broke her leg.

When you’re a single mom, the 31-year-old Frawley explains, the task of keeping your household afloat without sacrificing family time can feel insurmountable — to the point that getting into a terrible accident came as a blessing to her, because it meant she got paid medical leave from work and could spend more time with her son, now 2, while she recovered.

As a single mom and her family’s only earner, she said, there was high pressure for her to resume working soon after childbirth.
“And that means time away from your newborn,” said Frawley, who lives in Denver. “That’s time away from giving them the best head start. And that’s probably the biggest trade-off I made.”

Single mothers in Colorado are increasingly forced to make grueling trade-offs — e.g. sacrificing healthy food to pay rent, or delaying a needed medical procedure to be able to afford child care — according to a study published this week by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. Sixty-two percent of single moms in the state lack adequate income to cover basic needs, including food, housing, child care and health care. That’s up from 54 percent in 2000.

READ MORE in The Colorado Independent

Kayla Frawley, a single mom, plays with her 2-year-old son, Josiah, in their Denver apartment. (Photo by Alex Burness for The Colorado Independent.)