As a single parent I have enough frustrations to perpetually keep me grumpy, depressed and generally just ticked off. I have to work daily at training my brain to try to see the good in every situation. Granted some situations just stink-badly.I have come to realize that I have a choice as to how I want to allow an unpleasant or even disturbing situation affect me, my mood and ultimately my disposition with the children. I am not exactly talking about holding positive energy, or keeping good thoughts at the expense of dealing with reality. Instead I tyr to force myself to deal with a situation as soon as possible and as effectively as I can and then let it go so that it does not drag me or my family down permanently.
As part of this process I need to realize that my life here in the United States, just by virtue of where I was born is cozier than a lot of other people in many other locations. For example, I read a story about single parent families in Northern Israel who, over the past week or so have had to scurry to bomb shelters because of the intense fighting going on between the Israelis and Hezbollah in the Middle East. Some of the bomb shelters have been well…bombed out and many of these immigrant single parents do not have family that they can evacuate to in safer portions of the country and are basically stranded in a war zone-with their children-virtually alone.
In Australia new welfare reforms will cause single mothers to loose up to $180 in assistance per week. In England the child support collection system is in such disarray that it needs a complete overhaul. During the agency’s streamlining process they will apparently have to let billions of dollars of uncollected child support go-permanently uncollected.
The majority of people living near the Indian Ocean affected by the Tsunami of 2004 are still homeless and living in squalor. In typical fashion the single parent families are expected to be underserved, and most likely the last ones to receive housing- if at all.
I did not intend for this article to make anyone feel depressed, or think that their problems do not compare to those of others, but merely to point out that we are not alone in our struggles. For some reason that helps me feel a little less isolated and a little bit lighter.