This past week I had a very sick baby with a double ear infection and upper respiratory infection. She needed to be out from daycare for three whole days. Luckily, my husband was able to stay home two days with her and I was able to stay home the third day.
This really got me thinking about single moms. I thought to myself… how do single moms do this? A single mom would have needed to take three days off of work. What if they didn’t have three days of vacation to use? What if they didn’t have a relative in town to help them watch their sick baby? What would they do?
Now before I go on writing this post I want to make it very clear that I in no way, shape, or form know what it is like to be a single mom. I have not walked in those shoes and I’m not here to pretend I know what it is like. But I can imagine. I can imagine what it must be like, and I want to tell all the single moms out there… I commend you.
You are the ones waking up every single night with your baby when they can’t sleep and still put in a full day at work the next day. You are the ones that take your children to the doctor when they are sick. You are the ones that rush from work to make it to their soccer game. And sometimes you might have to miss that game because you have to work.
You do all the grocery shopping, the dishes, the laundry, the house cleaning, and the bills. You give your kids their baths, cook their dinner, and put them to bed every single night. You read them books, help them with their homework, and wipe away their tears if they’ve had a bad day.
You are strong and brave. You all have different stories of becoming single mothers; stories that have shaped you into who you are today. What you do on a daily basis is a beautiful thing. An exhausting thing. A tremendous thing. A selfless thing. That’s what motherhood is, but for those that do it on their own I want to give you a special shout out today. What you do does not go unnoticed and I want you to know how much I respect what you do.
When I think about single mothers I feel even more passionately about the importance of building a community of moms who support each other. We need to be there to relate to one another and to lean on one another. The same goes for single dads too.
Are you a single mom? I’d love to hear your story!
18 comments
I loved the post. My spouse is in the military and has to leave periodically. Each time I wonder how single parents do it? My mother raised 4 children on her own, how did she do it? I thank God for a wonderful and supportive husband so that I do not have to take on the responsibility of raising our children alone, but I also commend the single parents out there, you are all amazing.