IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card 684 with Model Answer

Describe someone you know who is a single parent

: You should say

who is he/she
what s/he does
how s/he takes care of his/her child
and explain what difficulties you think s/he faces as a single parent

: Model Answer

Family, undoubtedly, is the most important aspect of our life and people do everything for their families. But sometimes, they families get broken or do not start in a conventional way and the remaining members, especially the parents, are to lead a single life. I know, Augustine, a single mother living in my neighbourhood

Augustine lives with her son in a small rented apartment just opposite to my apartment building. I know her as I have to communicate with her regularly as her son and my daughters are in the same elementary school here in Paris. Augustine has got split with her husband around two years ago. Her husband, used to do nothing for living rather relying on Augustine. They had quarrels several times over the issue. She took measures to make her husband active but everything was in vain. The man did not do anything and by the same time, Augustine got pregnant. Since she had no other ways left, she started a small job amid her pregnancy. Despite such pathetic situation, her husband had no willingness to start working for a living. So, she got divorced with her husband

Augustine, now, is a school teacher. She teaches in a local secondary school. Besides, she also plays the role of mentor in different courses, especially she teaches French and German languages in a language club in Paris. She earns sufficiently and spends almost all the bucks for her baby boy. She takes classes when her boy is in the school but when she takes classes in the evening, for the language courses, she keeps her boy under my guardianship. The little boy plays with my daughter. Both of them have developed a good friendship. The two are in the same class and sometimes I help them to perform their home works and other assignments. When Augustine returns from her work, I talk to her sometimes about her day. She is like an intimate friend of mine, especially my husband is sympathetic to her for her bad luck. Though I suggested her to get married again, she declined to get engaged again. In fact, she is enjoying this part of her life

Though reluctant to get married again, she takes care of her son perfectly. Once I asked her about the care of the boy and she explained every issue to me. Even she is ready to die for her boy. She lives in a moderate apartment here and she could easily leave the residence to save money. But she is on the view that her son has been born there and she plans to stay at the same building as long as she can. Besides, the expenses for the school are large as the school is one of the most reputed elementary school in the city. She is meeting all the needs of the boy. She is working twice in a day for her boy. Firstly she teaches in a school in the morning hours and in the evening she attends the language club for mentoring. So, she earns a handsome amount but she spends all of her earnings for the boy. She also mentioned that she is saving a share from her entire earning for the future of her boy. In fact, she is performing all the tasks as much possible for her

Being a single parent is a highly troublesome task. If both the husband and wife live under a single shade, they could share all the necessary activities. Usually, men are engaged in wage-earning while the women are the homemakers. But when a part of the bonding is missing, I mean if the husband or wife gets split, life becomes difficult. As human beings, we cannot live alone. Hence the family arrived as an institution to live together. All the family members should work together to make the family run. But when there is a single parent, s/he is to do everything which seems impossible for a single individual to perform. Now Augustine is to look after her boy, earn her livelihood and maintain the society all by herself and often she is unable to balance among the other things. It becomes difficult for her to maintain everything smoothly and if she had her partner, life would have been easier for her, I guess