As single parents, many of us often find ourselves trying to do anything we can to minimize and reduce risk. After all, life can feel so precarious much of the time and any safety and security we can create really feels like a good thing. I do think it is important to remember, however, that we have to step outside that safety zone if we are going to stimulate growth and accept the inevitable changes. Most choices—even the best and safest ones—have an element of risk…
Let us think this thing through—think of times when you have made a change for the good—a new job, moving to a new neighborhood, or even for many of us the route that took us to becoming single parents. We did not know at the time how things were going to turn out when we started to make the change. I know that for some of us, it felt as though changes were forced on us. Maybe we were laid off from a job and had to find a new one, not knowing if it would turn out to be better or worse. Even having a child has great elements of risk—who knows what will happen or whether or not we will be decent parents?
Those risks are inherent in every change and choice that we make. I am not bringing this up to scare you or make you feel more precarious than you already do, but instead I want to remind us all that life is risky. We cannot control every piece and pre-determine every possible outcome. While we can try to take more calculated risks, and put thought and care into how we go about making our choices (and I know as single parents many of us try to be as careful as we can), we do still need to keep moving forward and keep making choices, knowing full well that there are elements of risk in all of it.