Who is the most powerful person in the world? Many people might say the president of the United States. After all, he has the most advanced military at his command. Some people would probably suggest that Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, because of their vast wealth, wield unparalleled power. Still others could go with someone like the pope or Dalai Lama because of their spiritual influence over millions of believers. But despite all their political, financial, or religious power, none of these individuals can match the power that the child of a single mother has!
There's a popular belief among men that states you should never date a single mother. While some of this might stem from pure male ego ("I will only raise a product of my own sperm!"), a deeper look reveals an undeniable wisdom behind the credence that single mothers should be avoided at all costs.
Certainly, there's something noble about a man who steps in to help raise a child that is not the fruit of his loins, especially if the genetic father is just a plain bad dad. The stability of a two-parent household (even if the father is not biological) can contribute to a healthier child that grows into a well-adjusted adult. Of course, this is all totally irrelevant if the woman is not a caring mother. A child of a single mother has little to no power if the mother puts her man ahead of the child, which does occur on occasion.
However, when the single woman is a relatively normal, nurturing mother, the child's power rivals that of the Caesar in ancient Rome, who held the lives of multitudes literally on his thumb! With a virtual thumbs down from the child of a single mother, an otherwise wonderful, loving relationship between a man and a woman can suffer the same fate as the gladiators in the Colosseum forced to face packs of ferocious animals.
It doesn't matter if the man asks the child's permission to date her mother, similar to how the guy in that cute TV commercial asks his girlfriend's son for permission to marry her. It doesn't matter if the man bends over backwards to earn the acceptance and approval of the child for the sake of preserving what is an otherwise deeply harmonious relationship with the mother. All it takes is a metaphorical flick of the wrist by the child to turn her thumb in the wrong direction, purely by whim with no rhyme or reason, for a beautiful relationship to be doomed. Even the president of the United States has a more elaborate process by which he can deploy the military than what the child of a single mother has to do to destroy a relationship that is going well by all other accounts.
And what's a man to do then? He faces a serious dilemma. If he is considering a more formal future with the single mother (like cohabitation, or even marriage), he doesn't have to be psychic to see big trouble down the road from a disapproving child. Home life could quickly turn into a living hell. At that point, with the potential progression of the relationship thrown into disarray by the child, it's natural that the man would begin to question everything about his relationship with the mother: Are they still making love and building intimacy, or are they just glorified fuck buddies? Are they sharing special memories when they go on vacation, or are they just enhanced travel pals? Is their relationship growing stronger as time goes on, or are they just going through the motions in a stagnant cycle?
When the child understands this power, and she combines it with emotional blackmail (for example, the explicit or implied threat that she might hurt herself if she doesn't get her way), no amount of love or connection between a man and a single mother can survive. The child's selfishness and manipulation, like hungry lions let loose on the gladiators in those ancient arenas, tear the relationship apart. Of course, the single mother can call the child's bluff, and the child's power would dissipate as fast as the helium inside a popped balloon, but that is a risk most caring parents are not willing to take.
Inevitably and eventually, the relationship ends under this kind of strain. That doesn't mean the single mother is cursed to never find love, though. If the child deems a future man worthy of her approval, that guy gets to enjoy the type of relationship the previous guy missed. With just a flick of the wrist in the other direction, the child's all-powerful thumb determines the fortune of love. Alternatively, if the child grows into adulthood and moves on to using her powers of emotional blackmail and manipulation in her own romantic relationships rather than her mother's, that can also free up the mother to pursue love once again with no encumbrances. There's even a third scenario where the child gets the counseling and guidance she needs to shed her demons... and they all live happily ever after!
