The single mother is a divisive figure in US society that has incurred great ire from various voices in society, such as in the media and politics. She is often constructed as a moral hazard or a financial drain on society. A particular target in public conversations is the single mother raising a son, who is also represented as a threat to the child. Freelance author Shawn James, for example, sums up this attitude in his blog post, ‘Ways Single Mothers Destroy Their Sons’, in which he writes that ‘[t]he most toxic environment for a boy growing up is in a single mother household’ (James 2013, 43). James’ claim clearly resonates with the public and has been referenced by many bloggers and YouTubers since. The single mother is often portrayed as a ‘deviant’ (De Benedictis 2012, 3). Through her deficient mothering, she is ‘responsible for societal collapse through male juvenile delinquency’ as sociologist Sara De Benedictis notes in an analysis of neoliberal discourse on single mothers (2012, 3). Faced with such unrelenting criticism, the single mother may turn to advice books for help.

In this she would not be alone. Up to one-half of Americans are said to have bought a self-help book at some point in their life (McGee 2005, 11), making them a ‘visible and powerful force in American society’ (Starker 2008, 1). As sociologist Micki McGee observes, advice books ‘are available to cover any and all issues, with titles specialized to address every market segment’ (2005, 12). One very popular market segment is parenting books. Amazon, for example, lists over 70 000 titles in this category, which places it on a par with genres such as career books (over 60 000 books) and dieting books (over 60 000 books). Such numbers suggest that many parents turn to parenting books for advice. Whether they take that advice is another matter. The books cannot tell us what parents actually do, but ethnographers and historians have tended to use ‘parent advice literature … as a window on cultural norms for childrearing’ (Hoffman 2009, 16). The books can tell us what ideas of parents, parenting and children are circulating in society, and accepted as reasonable (Faircloth, Hoffman, and Layne 2013, 9).