Traumatised teenagers can switch their lives all around – but they will need enable

I was moved by Daniel Dylan Wray’s account of lone parenthood, domestic abuse and viewing his father for the very first time throughout a courtroom (A moment that changed me, 1 February). I have a not dissimilar story, despite the fact that I lived with my father, but I don’t forget durations of parental separation as a welcome reduction. In a related Damascene second, I went from indignant teen to college, and, as a professor, I’m however there.

College was a door into yet another planet. I fear that related younger people will not have a probability to practical experience all those times of aid, and guidance from community companies, that I, and presumably Wray, enjoyed. The relentless assaults on financial and other assistance to lone moms and dads, and the ensuing stigma, will make lifestyle practically impossible for people in equivalent cases right now, as I outlined in the Guardian final yr (Tories have shamed solitary mother and father and heaped financial force on them, 5 July 2022).
Prof Morag Treanor
Edinburgh