Douglas and Michaels

Why is it that the "average" mother is never represented? It's always one extreme or the other, which comes along with the expectation of you either falling in one category or the other. I was recently on a city bus in NYC and a woman, who definitely didn't look like she was on welfare, was trying to calm her fussy child. The little boy let out one loud yelp and the woman was met with glares and rude comments. Are people too distracted by media representations to remember what it's like to be around a toddler that can't be controlled by anyone?

Since this article was written in 2000, there seems to have been a change in the portrayal of single moms in any social class. People are stunned when they hear celebrities being proponents of single parenthood. Is it just assumed that single parenthood, if you are not in the elite class, will always lead to welfare?