I love being a mom. It truly is one of the greatest joys in my life. Watching my daughter grow into the person she will become and knowing I had something to do with that, makes my heart happy.
That’s not to say it is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I thought parenting was difficult when I was married but it’s much harder as a single mom.
For me, the toughest thing is not having that sounding board to bounce ideas off and get advice from. We all want to do what’s best for our child but sometimes it’s hard to see if we are making decisions based on what’s best for them, or what’s easiest for us. If I had another adult in the house they could help me see the best thing. I’ve also discovered that although I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, in hindsight I wish I had reacted differently. Maybe, if I had a spouse, I would have reacted differently because we would have discussed it before I jumped in with both feet.
I also really dislike always having to be the bad guy. I remember growing up when my mother would say, “Wait until your father gets home…” That threat worked every time, even though my Dad was the easiest going man and never even raised his voice to us. I think it was more that we didn’t want to disappoint him than anything else. I don’t have that luxury. I can’t wait until Dad gets home so he can deal with today’s naughtiness, it’s just me, I have to do it all. That means a lot of the time I’m the mean parent while her father gets to be the nice one, because he doesn’t make her clean her room or do her homework.
Don’t even get me started on being sick. Almost worse than having the stomach flu is having your five year old trying to help you when you can’t even get off the couch. Isn’t this supposed to be the other way around?
It’s difficult, but so worth it. I read a quote recently, I can’t remember who said it but it sums up parenthood perfectly. The days are long but the years are short. So very, very true.