single father

[Victor]

There seems to be an evolution of single fatherhood. My assumption has
always been that the term was, essentially, custodial. So, a single
father would have been someone whose spouse/partner/mother of child
either died or left the household, leaving the children behind. This
would also include more rare cases where the children were placed with
the father by a court order (for whatever reason). Thus, single fathers
would, generally, have been more rare than single mothers, as it is much
easier for a father to disappear without acknowledging a child.

Not so now.

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10122646-92.html?tag=nl.e433>

<blockquote>
As disappointing as it was for Campo to lose a job that he liked, this
21-year-old has more responsibilities than most of his peers working
retail. He's a single father who recently won joint custody of his
2-year-old son. Campo is also putting himself through school, studying
math with hopes of becoming a high school calculus teacher.

But his priority right now is making his child support payments.
</blockquote>

Child support payments usually imply shared and non-primary custody,
a.k.a. non-custodial parent. So, unless I am completely misreading this,
the use here is of two "single parents"--both custodial and
non-custodial. Is this in common usage now? Or is this simply an
isolated incident?

    VS-)

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