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Onely Props: Being Single with Kids September 2, 2008

Regular reader/commenter Shannon wrote a really interesting post on her blog, A Beautiful Dream, about being a single parent recently — a perspective that Christina and I aren’t able to represent and so must give “props” to when we see posts like this. She describes the challenge of being single when her son gets sick and the further challenges/complications she anticipates when she will give birth to a second child, a daughter, in the next few months. Here’s a teaser for what she has to say:

Most of the time though, being a single parent is great. I am the one who Kaidin wants all the time – not his absent father. I get to make all the good decisions, like what schools he’ll go to, what religion he will follow while he’s younger, whether I want him to get the chicken pox vaccine (I don’t, by the way) and most importantly, I got to choose his name all on my own. If I want to wake him up at 2am on a Saturday night so we can have a midnight snack and watch shooting stars there is no one to tell me that I’m a bad parent. If he wakes up at 2am it’s my name he calls and he doesn’t have to shove anyone out of my bed to get in for snuggles. My son is super-independent for his age, but still comes for cuddles all the time. Basically, I get to reap the benefits of having children, without having to share anything with anyone else.

Go Shannon go! You (almost) make me want to have kids too!! Haha, I couldn’t help the hyperbole — we all know that’s not true… Okay, so I just want to keep reading your blog and cheer you on! And wonder what it’s like to live in Australia! 🙂

Readers, what do you have to add to this perspective? What are the highs and lows of being a (happy) single parent?

— L