To make a long story short, my mother got knocked-up, my dad stepped up and married her, 4 short years later they got divorced. After a short period of living with my mother, my father took custody of me and never looked back.
I can certainly tell you that it isn't "the norm," - but being raised in a single parent household, regardless of the sex of the parent, is becoming much more commonplace. Seldom has the issue even come up, simply because I didn't think it was odd, since it had always been that way.
I also had little to no contact with my mother, and I can tell you the best decision my dad ever made is to let me see what a bitch my mother was. Don't get me wrong, he never, ever spoke poorly about her, but when I grew older, probably around 13-14, I decided that I wanted to be proactive in seeing my mother, as she obviously didn't care to take the time to attempt to contact me. My father, realizing what the results were going to be, and knowing that I was going to be caused a lot of pain (we talked about it several years later) gave me the go-ahead and I started on my task. After weeks/months of cancelled plans, unreturned phone calls, and excuse after excuse, I finally got the picture. Sure, it sucked, but at least I knew for myself that it was futile to attempt to form a relationship with her.
Had my father not allowed me to contact her, I certainly would have hated him for it, although it would have saved me from a tremendous amount of heartache.
Hope this helps
