Single parents raising children alone face special problems. Unlike their married counterparts, they have to do everything by themselves and often don't have the support of their former spouses.

Children of single parent households suffer as well, and parents sometimes don't realize that things they say about the noncustodial parent profoundly affect their children and sometimes damage them in ways they could not have foreseen.

This article, Children in Distress – Depressed and Anxious: Are These Children Psychologically and Emotionally Damaged? relates the stories (spanning 45 years) of seven children who were part of a daycare environment. While the parents at first admitted their children had difficulties, when the daycare provider brought those same problems to the attention of the parents, the parents denied the problems and blamed their former spouses, the daycare provider, or some other situation for the problems.

Conclusion: most of the children in this article appear to have serious psychological and emotional problems, but the article offers help in the form of two web sites that guide the reader to mental health help through the government and to a web site devoted to autism.

If you are a single parent and you are belittling your ex-spouse in front of your children, read this article to find out how your words are affecting your child, even if what you are saying is true.