A question: Assuming the situation once again becomes favorable to males for marriage, would you ever consider marrying a widow who already had a child for the purpose of having additional children and raising the child, or if you can't have children for the purpose of raising her son as your own?
I have no interest in single mothers, but widows and their children are a case worth considering, even if to reject; so, I pose this question to you as well.
Magical Thinking
don’t meet many widows.
@DoubleD Maintaining a relationship with a woman is exhausting enough. I can't imagine marriage.
@DoubleD
These men whisper of love, of companionship, yet their choices betray a masochism I scarce comprehend. To court a single mother—be she widowed or divorced—is to embrace a burden clad in the guise of virtue. And what distinction do they draw, these fools, between the widow and the cast-off bride? None exists worthy of note.
@DoubleD
A widow, they say, is ennobled by tragedy, her solitude thrust upon her by fate’s cruel hand. A divorced woman, they sneer, bears the stain of her own failure, her union sundered by choice or weakness. Yet I see through this veneer of judgment, this petty moral posturing. A single mother is a single mother still—her spawn cling to her skirts, her resources sapped, her spirit tethered to a past she cannot unmake.
@DoubleD
The method of her solitude matters not; the weight of her existence remains unchanged. Whether her mate lies cold in the earth or walks free among the living, the yoke she bears is the same—a chain forged not of iron, but of obligation and regret.
@DoubleD
And what man, possessed of reason, would willingly bind himself to such a creature? To step into the shadow of another’s legacy, to shoulder the detritus of a life not his own? The widow offers no purity, the divorcee no absolution—both are marred by the same indelible truth: they are no longer whole, no longer free. Their children, those mewling leeches, drain time, gold, and vitality, leaving naught but scraps for the suitor foolish enough to linger
@DoubleD
I see no nobility in this sacrifice, no honor in this servitude.
Avoid them, I say—shun them as one shuns a plague-ridden corpse. Let the widows weep alone, let the divorced languish in their liberty. A single mother, by any path she treads, is a vortex of need, a sinkhole of lost potential. I declare this truth: to entangle oneself with such a soul is to court ruin. Let them stand as monuments to their own fates—untouched, unclaimed, and utterly forsaken.
Shallow, devoid of insight, inaccurate, and lacking in all style. Thankfully your post was NONE of these things, bravo!!
This line had me chuckling, it's by far the best: "A single mother, by any path she treads, is a vortex of need, a sinkhole of lost potential."
Excellent.
@DoubleD why would you even ask that?
@Justicar TFM has commented before that widows are different than single mothers in terms of his personal thoughts. This made me want to consider under what circumstances it could be worth marrying a widow, if ever.
@DoubleD most of the time she is widow and alpha widow at the same time.
Often the problem is with kid. Because woman often ignore you and try to make sacrifices to the dead guy.
I nature animals say if her kids are alive they kill them.
But still better than single mom. It is not good but not the worst. 
@DoubleD
If you make an exception to widows, then all women will simply lie and say all the kids' fathers are dead. They will do what they must to survive.
Societies already solved this problem by having their combined families (fathers and brothers) take care of the widow and their kids.
There truly is no reason to marry a single mother unless you're a low level simp who is used to being shunned/reject by everyone.
@Zeb It is a good point that she could just lie, and it becomes more of a risk the less access you have to family records.
@DoubleD @SamHarris @Mike_Microwave @Justicar @Stahesh @Zeb
A widow may have been a good and faithful wife, who may have stayed with a husband even after an illness.
A single mother MAY have been a skank.
Personally I cannot recommend marriage at all in modern times unless it's under extremely specific circumstances.
Namely, both of you are committed, baptized and chrismated Orthodox Christians, and known by the priest and community.
And only then under the terms of a Covenant Marriage and where you have done your due diligence on her history and character.
In terms of probabilities I'm guessing at single digit percentages.
Don't be fooled. Those tig ole bitties aint worth it.
@DoubleD If you want to help Widows and Orphans there is nothing wrong with that,if Catholic join the Knights of Columbus, but marriage is a sour grape in the US if you desire a aire to carry on your legacy and find a wife with no kids to have children financial prepare yourself with untraceable assets so when you get divorced your not financially ruined always have a plan B,get in front of any divorce serve the papers and put them on the defense and get 50/50 custody settle out of court
@magicalthinking @SamHarris @Mike_Microwave
@Justicar @Stahesh @Zeb Thanks for your input everyone.
So far in my considerations, there is no tangible benefit to marrying a widow with a child over a single mother with a child since her female nature will treat both situations the same: a new provider with different genes than her offspring.
The society's strictures on property rights in the family would largely dictate how much control you'd have to raise the step child as well.