Promises I Can Keep

Millie Acevedo bore her first child before the age of 16 and dropped out of high school to care for her newborn. Now 27, she is the unmarried mother of three and is raising her kids in one of Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods. Would she and her children be better off if she had waited to have them and had married their father first? Why do so many poor American youth like Millie continue to have children before they can afford to take care of them? Over a span of five years, sociologists Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas talked in-depth with 162 low-income single moms like Millie to learn how they think about marriage and family. "Promises I Can Keep" offers an intimate look at what marriage and motherhood mean to these women and provides the most extensive on-the-ground study to date of why they put children before marriage despite the daunting challenges they know lie ahead.

ISBN 0520248198   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9780520248199 (What's this?)   Pages 298 Publisher The University Press Group Ltd   Volumes 1 Imprint University of California Press   Weight (grammes) 485 Format Paperback   Published in CA Publication date 15 Mar 2006   Height (mm) 229 Writer of foreword Frank F. Furstenberg   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress 2005056896   Spine width (mm) 22 DEWEY 306.8560974811   Academic level General

Foreword by Frank Furstenberg Introduction 1. "Before We Had a Baby ..." 2. "When I Got Pregnant ..." 3. How Does the Dream Die? 4. What Marriage Means 5. Labor of Love 6. How Motherhood Changed My Life Conclusion: Making Sense of Single Motherhood Acknowledgements Appendix A: City, Neighborhood, and Family Characteristics and Research Methods Appendix B: Interview Guide Notes References Index

"The pair's refreshingly original results can be found in an essential new book, Promises I Can Keep. Unlike previous explanations for marriageless parenting that seemed so obviously off the mark, Edin and Kefalas' work is a revelation." - Celeste Fremon, Ms Magazine "Thankfully, someone has now taken the trouble to ask poor mothers themselves what's going on.... The experts have their theories, but the only real experts are the mothers themselves, and it's refreshing to hear from them for a change." - American Prospect "Ms. Edin and Ms. Kefalas decisively rescue the young welfare mother from the policy wonks and feminist professors who have held her hostage until recently, and in so doing overthrow decades of conventional wisdom." - Wall Street Journal "Cogent and persuasive." - Library Journal"

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