Glamorous Single Mother
In Real Life, being a single mother isn't easy. Let's be honest here. Children kind of need a lot of attention. It can be an overwhelming task for two parents, let alone one who also needs to have a day-job just so she can put food on the table.
Because viewing audiences tend not to like being reminded of how tough things can be, TV land has given us the Glamorous Single Mother- a character who juggles children, personal life, and work life expertly with little trouble or complications. In particularly extreme examples, her life will be indistinguishable from those of similar characters who do not have kids- they'll be little more than an adorable little Plot Device every few episodes.
This trope, coupled with Babies Make Everything Better can create some dastardly Unfortunate Implications in that they make getting pregnant appear to be a substantially less physically and emotionally draining task than it really is. It's probably not coincidental that this trope almost always involves upper-middle-class women, as opposed to the working poor. See also Friends Rent Control.
Film
- The Perfect Man was mocked for its use of this trope (along with many other things). Jean's predilection of moving to a new state every time a relationship fails would rightly be viewed as a sign of mental illness in nearly any other movie. Here, though, the only apparent consequence of these actions is that her daughter Holly wants to keep her mom from being let down again. How Jean manages to do things like afford a two-bedroom apartment in New York on a baker's salary is...not explained.
- The indie film Tumbleweeds had a similar situation with the single mother, though a little more realistic in tone.
- Dante's Peak: The character of Rachel Wando is not only a single mother, but is in charge of pretty much every single aspect of the titular town's business and politics including being the mayor, running a restaurant, etc. etc.
- Sandy from The Rebound is a subversion in that she has to hire a nanny so she can work the hours she needs to.
Live Action TV
- Probably the most famous invocation of this trope is the title character on Murphy Brown. Dan Quayle famously attempted to question the Unfortunate Implications this trope creates- and ended up the target of ridicule for suggesting that television could influence people like that. Interestingly, Candice Bergen herself thought Quayle had a point.
- Gilmore Girls uses this, but not in the backstory when Lorelai and the infant Rory were taken in by the owner of the Independence Inn, Mia, where Lorelai became a maid. When the show starts proper, daughter Rory is a teenager and the relatively easy time Lorelei has raising her can be rationalized along those lines. (And of course, Rory was the world's most well-behaved girl to begin with.)
- Lampshaded in an episode where Lorelei is invited to speak at the local highschool's career day about being a successful local business woman. The girls in the class assault her with questions about her infamous teen pregnancy instead of letting her give the speech she prepared. She ends up having to state outright that even though she sometimes wonders how her life could have turned out differently, she would not change what happened even if she could (because she would not trade Rory for anything). She even tries to make it clear that she considers herself very lucky in terms of how things have worked out for her despite her pregnancy preventing her from going to college. Later, the mothers of the girls don't care about the nuance of her response (which hinged on loving her daughter) and ambush her for supposedly "glorifying" teen pregnancy to their daughters. Lorelei doesn't take kindly to the implication that she should have said she regrets her daughter.
- Lisa from Supernatural. She also has a ridiculously nice house, even though she doesn't have an especially good job and is raising a kid on her own.
- Naomi Sandburg in The Sentinel travels constantly all over the world, has nice clothes, etc. in spite of being an ex-flowerchild with a son whose father she's not sure of (or won't admit.)
- Rachel on Friends is more of a subversion. She is single during her pregnancy and after Emma is born, while maintaining a high-profile job. However, Ross (Emma's father) is a consistent presence throughout it all - even taking off work for a time to help raise her. The trope is even Lampshaded during her baby shower, where Rachel is starting to panic that she won't be able to handle it. Ross points out that she has overcome adversity before, but also has the benefit of him (already an experienced parent).
- Mia from Degrassi started out as a subversion of this. Then they had her mom somehow find a way to stay home with the kid while Mia became a model.
- Averted on CSI. Catherine notoriously has trouble balancing finding time for Lindsey with working nights at the crime lab.