As a single parent you may feel like your life is in utter chaos about 90% of the time. You are running from one thing to the next all day long, you hardly have time to take a shower in the morning, let alone brush your teeth. You are doing the work of two, so naturally you have a lot on your plate at any given time during the day. There are always a million things to do; get up, get the kids ready for school, go to work, come home, make dinner, help kids with homework, give the kids a bath, read stories, tuck them into bed, pick up the house and if you’re lucky you may even have time to breathe before your head hits the pillow tonight and you start all over again. Life is exhausting, and you rarely have any time to yourself. How can you possibly find balance amidst the chaos? Take a deep breath, believe it or not, you can still live a healthy, well-balanced life as a single mother, you just have to approach it a little differently.
Take things one step at a time. You don’t have to conquer the world today. The world probably isn’t going to end if the laundry sits there for a couple of days. Those dishes in the sink? They’ll still be there tomorrow. Take time to go play with your kids tonight instead. They won’t remember the dirty dishes, but they will remember when Mommy took them to the park and played Ring-Around-the-Rosies and rolled around in the grass with them. Children grow so quickly, don’t miss out on the opportunities to play with them now. Your house may not be perfect, but at least it is filled with love.
Don’t forget to take a few minutes out for you every day. We all need some time to wind down after a long day of Mommy Duty. Whether it is taking a bubble bath after the kids are in bed or calling up an old friend, take a few minutes to focus on you and your needs. When you give yourself a little break from the hassles of everyday life, you are more able to cope with the things going on around you. You will still have days that feel completely unbalanced, you may still even want to rip your hair out on others, but if you look at the big picture and take a little time to enjoy life, you inevitably will find more balance in a life that once seemed completely unbalanced.