SINGLE PARENT POV
Be a single parent is hard!
Managing your life with a child as a single parent, as I like to say, it is a superhero thing!
Children and single parenting
Facing challenges with your child as a single parent is QUITE common and VERY normal.
Unfortunately, society paint us single parents as people who have no clue on how to deal with our kids, without acknowledging the massive stress we go through as a human first, especially when the other parent is non-existent.
Single parents are left with major responsibility and do not have the same opportunity as most people have and so, even simple tasks such as grocery shopping can be really overwhelming.
The budget is never enough. Nothing is never enough for us to live peacefully and take care of our little ones as we would like to and yet, we are expected to excel in parenting.
Constant judging does not help anybody; and guess what? Be a single parent is not always a choice.
Most of the time we must take that decision so our little ones will grow up in a much healthier environment.
Yes, there are common problems faced by a single parent but guess what?
We are focussing on the positive today.
You know why?
Because we have enough of the negative aspect.
A child of a single parent who is LOVED and SUPPORTED, will not have more problems than a child who grow up with both parents
Exactly! As a single parent we often do not realize how much we are doing for our children.
The guilt takes over and we start overthinking…. STOP!
Do you give your child daily emotional support?
Do you support and guide your child through the day?
Do you always care about your child wellbeing?
Do you take care of feeding, clothing, educating, disciplining…..
Did you reply yes to these? YOU ARE DOING AMAZING AND YOU CHILD KNOWS!!!
POSITIVE OF BEING A SINGLE PARENT:
1) The relationship between the parent and the child is closer and the bond
will last longer later in the child’s life
Children with single parents, tend to rely on their main career for EVERYTHING they need. Spending a lot of quality time with your child one to one, creates an extraordinarily strong bond which it may not be there if both parents are involved equally. This type of bond will last longer in a child’s life, giving the security and confidence he/she needs every day.
2) Single-parent families are less likely to rely on traditional gender-specific roles
B a single parent is not considered as having a “real family” for some, which will let us fall in the category of “non-traditional”.
Having a family is all about loving and caring for each other and no matter who you are, you have a role which is to help and respect the people who live with you, contributing to house chores EQUALLY.
Be a single parent means that all depends on you. The cooking, the cleaning, working, fixing, educating, no matter your gender.
This set out a good role model for every child.
We are slowly killing the stereotype of gender-specific roles and WE ARE PROUD!
3) The child is typically mature and responsible
This can be positive, but it can also be negative. I will explain.
Psychologist says that be “mature for your age” it is actually considered a red flag.
The child of a single parent sometimes goes through a type of stress that a child with both parents will never know about.
But what I would like to focus on is how well these children will cope with the world growing up. They will be the one getting their best friend out of trouble.
They will be the one to spot a negative situation and run away from it to be safe.
They will be the ones their friends can always count on.
They will be the ones who will not let anybody fool them.
Despite their strong and hard shell, they will also be the ones who still needs all the love and affection you can give them, be kind.
4) The single parent is more likely to use positive parenting technique rather than punishment, which will be more effective on the long run.
A single parent knows they have to struggle three times more as no one is there to back us up. But we also know how important is that our child grows up with empathy, respect towards others and, most important, confidence in themselves and their ability.
(We will talk more about positive parenting tips to the next post).
5) Children of a single parent, know how to deal with adversity earlier in life because they went through struggles, most of them from the early years.
I would like to end this saying that overall, Single parents are an incredibly good example of independence, strength, and resilience! Be proud of yourself!