and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

The gov'ment wants adults to practice abstinence too! 998,262 births in the US in 2004 were to unmarried women in the age range of 19-29.

The birth rate in the US is roughly 14 births per 1,000 in population per year, or a little over 4 million/year.. That, of course, means almost one quarter of all kids born today are to an unmarried mother aged 19 to 29.

While the 19 to 29 year old age range is by far the largest contributor of unmarried births, they are still only about 50% or less of the total, which, of course, means that there are close to 2 million unwed births a year. The reported figure is 1 out of 3 children but it could be as high as 50% of all kids born.

About 27% of family households with children under 18 are single-parent households and, due to divorce, death, and unmarried births, one in two children will live in a single-parent family at some point in their childhood.

One in two.

As a trend, things are obviously getting worse. The number of babies born to unmarried women per year has increased well over 400% since 1978. The number of single mothers in 1970 was about 3 million. That number grew by 330% to 10 million in 2000. In the same period, the total population of the US increased only 37%.

Meanwhile, over 40% of single parent households live at or below the poverty level. The rate of poverty among these households is close to double the national average.

While living in poverty is generally no fun, it can also be harmful. Financial strain can be very taxing (no pun intended) and is one of the strongest predictors of depression and crisis in a family unit, regardless of the family structure. 3 out of 4 children in chemical dependency hospitals are from single-parent families. Almost two thirds of suicides are individuals from single parent families. 75% of teenagers who have pregnancies are from single parent homes.

According to a National Child Support report in 2000, $39 billion dollars was owed in back child support to 29 million children of single parent women. Less than a quarter of single-parent women receive full child support and more than a third receive none at all.

While almost 80% of these women are employed and nearly half carry multiple jobs, the hourly wage for (all) women without children is 90% of men's hourly wages while the comparable figure for (all) women with children is 70%.

In 49 states the average annual cost of child care exceeds the annual cost of public college tuition and the average single mother spends 32% of her income on child care (that percentage is for one child only).

These single-parent women have the highest rate of unemployment and have the lowest wages regardless of their education.. yet 59% of single mothers continue on with higher education whereas only 46% of married women do.