Those weren't the goals asked for by the parent. But to address this individually, yes, they are required for any kind of a family - single or married or with

Those weren't the goals asked for by the parent. But to address this individually, yes, they are required for any kind of a family - single or married or with 55 children. And it's harder to do than it has been for the hundreds of thousands of years before now - it's not something you just "get" for working, for being part of a community, anymore. In other words, being hale and working all of the sunlit hours week is no longer sufficient to provide for a family. Something relatively new in human history. EDIT: $7.25 (US federal minimum wage) * 8 hours * 365 days/year puts you right at the poverty line for a 3 person household. A quality of life which may theoretically be better than that of a caveman, but hardly what I'd call "providing" for your family.