Everywhere you look there is an article about single parents, but even more lately, articles about women choosing to become single parents. We live in a world that will allow us, thanks to technology, to have children long past our natural reproductive years. Many more women today choose to be single mothers. Personally, I can’t imagine that choice, not because I think it’s wrong but because I know it’s hard. Raising Hailey alone is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and she was ten when I got divorced.
For people, not just women, to decide that they’ve waited long enough, they want children, with or without the perfect partner, I have nothing but admiration. People who think that women who decide to have children alone are selfish, have no idea what they are talking about. Raising a child, especially alone, is the most selfless thing you can do.
I think single parents by choice are better prepared than most of us are when we are thrust into single parenting. I know when I became a single parent I was constantly worried about how I was going to be able to afford it all, and the logistics of everything.
People who decide to become single parents have thought all these things through; single parenthood doesn’t come as a surprise as it did too many of us. They are financially and emotionally ready to raise a child on their own. They have worked out day care and transportation issues; they have everything in place for when they are alone with this tiny little person they are solely responsible for. That’s something I wish I could have been better prepared for.
That doesn’t mean they don’t need the support of other moms, they do, just like the rest of us. Whether you are a single parent by choice or by chance there is no instruction book and the best thing you can have is a group of supportive people who love you and your child and are willing to be there when you need help.