Take the case of 29-year-old Jennifer Stepp, who lives in Reading, Pa. Like 14 million other people in the U.S. who live in families headed by single mothers, she's poor. And she faces incredible odds. 

Stepp has three children by three different fathers. The father of her eldest child, 10-year-old Isaiah, is serving 30 years in federal prison for armed robbery. 

"He's met my son one time, when he was a baby. And he decided that he didn't want him," she says. 

Stepp's middle child, 8-year-old Shyanne, usually sees her father every other weekend. But the father of her younger son is also in prison. Stepp says he's been behind bars for selling cocaine since she was pregnant. He has never met 1-year-old Makai. 

"He writes letters back and forth, and he wants to be a part of his son's life," she says. "I'm just waiting for him to get out and get his life together." 

Stepp says she was the victim of youthful optimism. She kept thinking that the next guy had to be better than the last, and that the relationships would last. 

Now, that's all behind her, and she's wiser.

Big Ern (BigErn77) wrote: 

If I am to pay to support these children, I also want a piece of the action from these broads, every now and then. I mean, I'm basically doing some husbandy duties, puttin' food on the table and all that, I correspondingly deserve a little of the 'ol husbandy benefits package, if you know what I mean. 

Then again, since most of these 'women' are horribly disfigured by obesity, I take it all back - I want nothing to do with them.