[mcmama]

Am I the only single mom here? I have been divorced for six years, have two teenage boys, and was pretty much on my own for raising them in the last two years of my 15 year marraige.
Anyone else? Anyone single from the beginning? Anyone new to this parenting alone thing?
Don't be alone!

[PAMMY35]

HELLO MCMAMA
i am too a single parent raising two teenage daughter and everyday is a fight. there are many days i feel i am alone. for the past two years i haven't worked due to back problems. i have lost my home. i currently live with my mother. but through the grace of god and good family i can say i am still here. i just can't figure out what to do with my children sometimes. with all that we have lost. they have been well provided for. theres not hardly anything they don't have. i just wonder when is it every going to be enough for them they are never satisfied. and it driving me crazy!!!!!!!!!!!

[tnmommie]

Hello I'm a single mom to. I have two sons 12 and 8 and a daughter that is 9. Im living back in a trailer my family owns by my family for the time being it has been hard but Im not going to give up. My mom was a single mother with three daughters. Sometimes I just want to run away and hide,but I know my children are depending on me so that keeps me going. Im just thank God for what I have and that I do have my kids.

[mcmama]

It is good you have your family for support. Mine is all dead and I have been pretty much on my own.
I know that run away and hide feeling - some days it is like "What's next?" But the kids make it all worth while. It seems that so many of us become single moms because we survive calamities - bad relationships, disasters, cleaning up after other people's problems. One of the things I have found is that since it is all up to me, I take great pleasure and pride in doing things with the kids. I find I don't need a "Break" from them, but I sometimes need time alone. Like it or not, they have had to accept that if they want something I cannot afford, nothing is stopping them from earning the money to get it themselves and make their own choices. I made it very clear to them at the beginning that I wasn't in a position to buy satisfaction for them. A lot of us do fall into that trap, because we think we have to make everything up to everybody! No one does that for us!! (But it is every single mom's fantasy that someone will!)
Just imagine if we put all that energy that we focused on the disasters that led us to be single raising kids on living our best lives and doing it well! We really are something!

[OrganizedChaosMom]

I am a "sometimes" single mom. My husband is in the Navy and we have 5 kids between the 2 of us. So I fall into that category when he's deployed and it's tough- especially when I am the one dealing with the ex-wife. Sometimes I want to "run away and hide" too and there's nothing I can do but keep going another day. And there are days that I worry that my husband might not make it home from the war and then I will lose 3 of my kids back to their mom after I have raised them. I picked my husband because he was a single dad with full custody and in the military too- alone for 4 years making it work. That's when I knew he was a keeper.
I commend you all for all that you do- I too have been there and sometimes it sucks, but knowing that your kids are taken care of by the BEST person out there makes it all worthwhile!

[EbayMom]

I've been a single mom since 1997....I love being single.
I've been Mom & Dad for all that time....X is $20,000 behind in support! It's not easy, but I'd rather be struggling as a divorcee, than be someone's miserable wife!

[PAMMY35]

I give all my props to all of us. we are truly strong, beautiful, striving women of the world and we will survive. it is so nice to hear from all of you all and to know that i not alone. everyone needs some support from all sort, form, and fashion. we just need to remember to give ours a pat on the back sometimes to remember what a great job we are doing. because some women feel that can't do it alone. but we can and i have. by the grace of god.

[seatides]

Originally Posted by PAMMY35

I give all my props to all of us. we are truly strong, beautiful, striving women of the world and we will survive. it is so nice to hear from all of you all and to know that i not alone. everyone needs some support from all sort, form, and fashion. we just need to remember to give ours a pat on the back sometimes to remember what a great job we are doing. because some women feel that can't do it alone. but we can and i have. by the grace of god.

PAMMY35, I couldn't agree with you more. We deserve to pat ourselves on the back once in awhile! After all, if we don't, who will? I felt the same way you do about this recently and wrote a little piece about it -- it's at this link:

http://single-parenting.families.com...006/01/05/p504

I hope you and all the other single parents here at Families.com are reading my Single Parenting blog (just click on "Single Parenting" in my signature below). I'd love to know what you think about what I'm writing; why don't you post your comments over there? I'd also enjoy hearing from you about what you'd like me to write about.

Take care, PAMMY35, and mcmama, tnmommie, OrganizedChaosMom and EbayMom too. Don't be discouraged and don't give up! You and I, as well as all the other single parents here, are doing the best that we can for our children.

[godschild]

I have been a single mom forever, I have never been married, my oldest son just turned 20, and my youngest is 14. It has been a hard ride. I have no family support, it seems like everyone i know is either married or dating someone. I used to want to be married, but I have not felt that way in a long time. My goal for years has been to raise my boys to be GODLY men. There have been some challenges, and oh so many finacal issuses. But, I love the relationship I have with my kids. They talk to me about things that are going on (wether I want to hear it or not).
All that being said, I do have my moments where I break down. But God has been so good to us.