Being a single mom is one of the most dreaded yet respected states of parenthood. It has it work well cut out and only a single mom can understand a fellow single mom. These are the top ten things that only we single moms know.
- Multipurpose human
When you’re a single mother, you become a multipurpose woman by default. You’re the mother, the father, the couch, the chauffeur, the doc, the discipline master, mention anyone your baby needs and you’re that person.
- Undivided attention
Just like everything else has an up and down side, one of the upsides of being a single mom is the lavishing-undivided attention from the little one/s. The feeling of being needed at all times is enough to keep you young and sharp.
- Where’s my dad?
This is question that has left many single moms cursing the baby daddy. Some will opt to tell the truth but a few will concoct a good lie because let’s face it, how do you tell your little precious thing that dad doesn’t give a hoot about us anymore?
- Dealing with PR
A single mom is at a disadvantage of having to put up extra effort when it comes to public appearances. Because most people are expecting you to crack down at any single moment so you have to put up the best show to tell people that everything is okay even though you’re already breaking inside.
5. Loneliness
Now this is a very controversial theme but only if you’re a single mom, you will understand the expression “lonely in the middle of a crowd.” You constantly yearn for some alone time but as soon as you get it you’re hit by a nauseating sense of loneliness. You want to have a nice glass of wine and watch a movie in the arms of a handsome loving adult. It’s a feeling that never goes away.
- Dating
When it comes to dating, this is one of those times when you want and don’t want something at the same time. You’re so scared of all the physical, financial and mental state it will put you through. You have to pay for a baby sitter, buy new fitting clothes since you put on some weight after child birth and you worry about stretch marks and flabby body. You don’t even know if he will accept someone with extra “baggage.”
- Dealing with judgmental relatives
When you have been a single parent for long, expect some relatives or close friends to start lecturing you on how to not screw it up again with another deadbeat block when you start dating. They will treat you like a child who doesn’t know how to learn from experience.
- Freedom
One of the other upsides of being a single mom is the freedom you have via child upbringing. You don’t have to deal with the usual full parent fights over what the child needs/needs not eat, which schools to go to, or whether he should play tennis or football.
- Insecurity
The constant fear of failure is every single mom’s night mare. You fear that your child feels left out at on father’s day, you fear that your child will grow to feel resented by the absence of dad. You fear this, you fear that. You work twice as hard to suffocate the fears but they always find a way of popping up.
- Incomparable joy
Like the saying goes, the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory. There’s simply no better job than to look at your baby and feel all the life flow back into you after a day of being mom, dad or whatever you had to be that day.