Do Children From Single Parents Stand a Chance?

Are our children doomed from the start because they're being raised by single parents? Are we doing everything humanly possible to raise responsible, loving adults? Do we feel inadequate as parents because we are single?

STOP WORRYING! And read this lovely story about a woman who raised her daughter alone and discovered that despite being a single parent, she managed to raise a beautiful, responsible, and loving daughter who let her mom know just how much she appreciated her.

Can a Single Parent Ever Do Enough? is a truly touching story. Please click on the link.

Parents Helping Parents

As single parents, we are not unlike our married friends when it comes to seeking advice in dealing with our children. But because we are raising our children alone, we want as much help as possible and when we come upon somebody who offers to help us, we grab onto that help and share our findings with other single parents.

After I wrote my article, How Touch Affects Your Children, a woman by the name of Maggie Macauley, of Whole Hearted Parenting, contacted me to tell me she would be linking my article to her web site. She also authors a blog at http://wholeheartedparenting.blogspot.com/. I highly recommend her for parenting issues and I wanted to share my "find" with you. 

Her slogan: 

Joyfully Parenting with Your Whole Heart.

Her mission:

		to provide parents with loving skills to build deeper
		relationships with their children and to increase their effectiveness in raising children who grow into responsible, productive and happy adults

		to provide teachers with the classroom management
		skills that build a connected school family where children belong and can maximize their learning potential

 

Just wanted to share, and if you find anything helpful for single parents as you surf various sites, please share your "finds" with me.

The "Be Me" Game

When the kids were little, we had to wait until somebody gave us money at birthdays and Christmases before we could afford to do anything "big." I also saved our change so we could go to restaurants – usually fast food – just to escape our usual routine. 

I use the word "routine" loosely – we really had no routine, other than their father picking them up every other weekend. The older the kids got, the less time we spent together, because the second they ran in the house after spending most of the weekend at their dad's, they dropped their overnight and book bags, then ran outside to spend time with their friends. 

So I worked very hard to make the times we had together special. From picnics on the floor to made-up games, quality time became memorable time.

The "Say Something Nice About Your Sister/Brother" game was my way of getting the kids to recognize that they really did care about each other. I didn't expect though that the game would be so difficult for my only son. It was nearly torturous waiting for him to come up with SOMETHING. In exasperation, after running through his repertoire of memories concerning one of his sisters, he finally came up with, "I like the birthmark on Brittney's butt." Well done! At least he came up with something.

One game in particular brought waves of laughter when our imitation of each other surprised everybody. I dubbed the game the "Be Me" game, because in essence that is exactly what we did. When my son became me, he raised his eyebrows, tilted his head back, and pretended to apply mascara, then scolded everybody in the room for not being nice. When the kids became each other, they exaggerated movements and voice inflections to act out their sibling's character.

Every defense from, "I don't act that way!" to "I don't talk like that" to everybody nodding that yes, they did, was so much fun, we were all nearly doubled over in laughter.

Finding fun with no money can sometimes be a challenge, but it can be done. One word of warning: If you play the "Be Me" game, be prepared for unexpected surprises.