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If you laughed when you read this title, you’ve found your people.  Single parenting is complex, and many folks can get caught up even trying to identify if they ARE, in fact, a single parent.  Sometimes you can have a partner and feel completely alone in your parenting experience.  Sometimes you can be separated but feel well-supported in co-parenting.  None of which, of course, to take away from the experience of parenting without any support at all, in any capacity. Being a parent is a unique experience to everybody and it is tough work.  Some of the biggest challenges are feeling alone in our experience.  Feeling isolated, that no one will understand, holding back from venting or asking for help because we don’t think our situation is as bad as someone else’s.  The biggest challenge?  There’s no time.

No time to feel poorly, no time to properly access support (researching, meet and greets, telling your story *again*, who has the time?).  All to be told, what?  Use your coping strategies?  We all know coping strategies are a buzzword and are uniquely personal; it can take time to experiment and find the right combination, and “mom guilt”, other commitments, and priorities often get in the way.  

Building a foundation to cope as a single mom means being selfish every now and then.  It means reconnecting with the inner daughter, the friend, the professional… the woman outside of being a mother.  Listening to her needs for a while, and giving permission to slow the world down around them.  This doesn’t mean bubble baths (although it could!), it might mean leaving work 10 minutes early so you can sit in your driveway, the daycare parking lot, etc., and decompressing before switching into mom mode.  It might mean stopping for your favorite drink in the morning.  It might mean ordering pizza or throwing cereal on the table for dinner.  Or, it might mean finding a safe space to talk about your experience.  

New Life Counselling is a safe place to share your experience.  To talk about how you can find protected time in your busy schedule.  To complain, vent, and outsource your thoughts and feelings to someone whose feelings you don’t need to worry about.   Consider the invitation and if this struck a chord, reach out to any of our psychotherapists today for a meet and greet and begin to walk in New Life.