How do single parents do it?
Source: onkle wart
But if I hadn’t had Charlie there, the fact that I was feeling rotten would have had no bearing on Little Man’s need to get up at the crack of dawn. And there’d have been no lie-in…I’d have had no choice but to get up and get on with it. I really don’t know how single parents do it.
This parenting lark is hard enough when there’s someone else there to help. Being a single parent must be no joke. Right now, we make it through sleepless weeks by only being on “ups” every second night. That way, even if I am up half the night, or have to check on Little Man every hour, at least I know that I have an unbroken night’s sleep ahead of me the following night. That knowledge gives me the energy to keep going, and it keeps me sane!
So this is just a little note to all the single parents out there who manage to keep their kids fed, and healthy, and clean, and still keep a smile on their faces…what you do is no small feat! And this is just a little acknowledgment of how amazing you are!
I was thinking about this just yesterday. I rely on the knowledge that “daddy will be home later” to manage trying days when the baby is fussy. Hats off to those who do it alone!
It must be so difficult. I can’t even imagine it.
Thank you, I will never say it is easy. It is so hard but when there is no one else there to hand the baby to, you just get on with it. What was also so hard for me was that Nathan was a really bad sleeper, in fact hardly slept as a baby. He is better now but still inconsistent and doesnt take much to knock him off schedule.
Those sleepless nights must have been so hard Tanya. I feel your pain about dealing with a bad sleeper. There were days and weeks I could barely see straight and that was with someone to share the load with. I stand by what I wrote – I am in awe of you and anyone else who manages it on their own.
Well you do it because you’ve no choice and because you love your kids. Even on the days when you feel that you can’t keep going, you just do…
I don’t have a baby anymore, but the struggles of a pre-hormonal 10 year old are pretty hard as a single mom (plus his 5 year old brother!). I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but I would do anything sometimes for that break of “Here, you need to deal with them.” Or being able to have more than a glass of wine at night, because I have to be conscious for the school run in the morning.
I didn’t know how they did it before, and now I get it. You do it because you have no other option, because you want your kids happy and healthy, and because you just have to.