Breaking Ground – Single Parenting Choices with Confidence
When I started my family, I had no intentions of becoming a single parent. It really wasn’t in my vocabulary and I wasn’t interested in the kind of stigma my children might have with a single mom. Strange things happen. I’m a single parent.
Raising my own children hasn’t been so much an issue as raising other people’s children. The son-in-laws, the friend’s children who contact me for information, or because they’re afraid to tell their married parents some bit of information that just suddenly came up. Umm. Life happens? I’m always amazed when I get a phone call from the married daughter of a friend who is afraid to tell her parents she’s pregnant. Ummm Honey, you’re married, what are they going to say? They don’t want grandchildren? I doubt that, but seriously, there have been several.
A few days ago, one of those married young women stopped by crying, with her baby girl. She needed some help with her daughter and her parents were out of town. The babysitter was sick and she had to work, her husband had left town on the truck (he drives) and she didn’t know where to turn. Friends? Well, that would be me.
Her baby got spoiled for the day, I enjoyed some special time with a little girl, managed somehow to get my work done, and all was well. But, why aren’t we teaching our daughters and sons to develop resources as they go along instead of sending them out into the world unprepared?
When my children were small and I was moving from town to town with an errant husband who had two fiddle feet, I looked for resources first thing when I arrived. Other moms, churches, church families, and other resources for my children. They might need someplace to stay until my parents or other family members could get there. I wanted to have resources for my children, so I looked.
Single parents, make your choices with confidence and know that you are the very best parent for your child. But, have resources ready to fall back on when necessary. Child resources are important. Do some ground breaking to get your children the best resources possible.
