Is it just me or are there a load of posts going round about the chores that kids can, and should, be doing lately? I thought perhaps I could bring some added insight on this debate as a solo mum. Raising a child alone means doing all the housework, and – ironically – it means…
Single Parenting
Solo Mum Waiting To Take A Pregnancy Test
There are two weeks between insemination and taking a pregnancy test. This unit of measurement glosses over all that entails though; the 14 days; the 336 hours; the 20, 160 minutes; the 1, 209, 600 seconds. Each and every single one of those is felt in excruciating detail when you’re in the midst of the…
Another Reading of the Single Mum Research
You might have seen in the news recently that a study has just been released about the long term effects of growing up with a single parent (read mum). It’s the usual kind of gumpf – single parents are useless, blah, blah, blah. Only this one claimed to have long term data to prove it,…
I Can’t Control My Child: The Secret of Motherhood
It’s every parent’s nightmare isn’t it – a tearaway kid – but if I’m honest, I can’t control my child. I often find myself worrying what others think about my lack of parental control. I’m sure it’s a fear of mums everywhere, but sometimes I worry that, as a single mum, the judging will flow more…
Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad
There weren’t many dry eyes amongst those of us who watched Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad. I haven’t experienced the death of a close relative, even the prospect of it scares the hell out of me. Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum and Dad isn’t a documentary only about grief though, it shows many of the universal truths about unchosen single…
Getting Divorced – Divorce Monday
January is the most popular month for getting divorced. Over twice as many people file for divorce this month as file for it in the second most popular month – September (I’m guessing the school holidays are to blame then). The first working Monday in January is termed “Divorce Monday” because it’s the most popular day to file…
Single Parent Support
Like most, I found becomming a single parent isolating and challenging. The best advice I received was to find a single-mum-best-friend locally. But how? I was going through a divorce – my most important connection had failed – the idea of making new ones felt impossible. I wish I’d known how to connect with the single…
When My Ex Threatened Court
Sometimes things move so quickly with my ex that I struggle to know what’s happening. In the last six weeks my ex threatened court, tried to be daddy of the year and, most recently, disappeared off the face of the earth. Let’s start at the beginning. My ex was out of the country for a few weeks…
When Co-Parenting Fails: The Reality
This is my story of when co-parenting fails. Two years after separating, it seems almost comical now how naive my initial expectations of co-parenting were. At the start I believed those advice pieces about the importance of creating a strong co-parenting relationship. I thought that the first time my son had a 40+ temperature his dad would…
The Good Times
I have written a lot about the challenges of motherhood – single motherhood especially. As I put up posts like missing in action and this shit just got real, I worry that should I, or my son, (or really anyone) look back on this blog in years to come and think that this is the whole…