Tag Archives: perspective

Single Parent Dating—Don’t Take Things Personally

As parents, many of us are in touch with our emotions; we’ve developed empathy and understanding and have learned how to think more about other people and less about ourselves. This is a good thing! It means we are maturing and growing in our ability to be both a great parent and a great human being. However, when it comes to dating as a single parent, our empathy and well-developed emotional side can get in the way. We might be expecting too much, or taking things the other “dates” say or do too personally. I think it can be tough … Continue reading →

You Might Only Be Seeing a “Piece” of Things

We all have a tendency to THINK we know what is going on; we have formed our own opinions, looked over what we think is happening and have made a decision about what is going on. The fact is, however, that we are often only seeing a piece or a fragment of the whole picture, and we might not be taking into account that there are other ways of looking at things. For those of us who go through a separation or divorce on our way to becoming single parents, or have some other crisis that divides our families into … Continue reading →

Balancing the Big Picture with the Daily Details

There is no getting around the fact that parenthood and family life is full of daily details—in fact, one could argue that when it comes to raising children it can seem like it is “all in the details.” BUT, being able to get away from the details and daily concerns once in a while and see the “big picture” can be a parent’s road to sanity… Does this really matter in the BIG PICTURE? If I don’t mop the kitchen floor today or correct my child every single time he has his elbows on the table during meal time is … Continue reading →

Christmas Morning Walk

My three children spend Christmas Day with their father and all his relatives. It wasn’t always easy for me–in fact, in the early years after the divorce it was incredibly painful and I felt like it was unfair and unjust–after all, wasn’t I the one who even WANTED to have these children and hadn’t I been the primary care parent dealing with all the doctor’s appointments, school meetings, etc.? How is it that after all that I ended up alone on Christmas? Eventually, of course, I got over myself and adjusted. After all, that is one of the grand things … Continue reading →

There are So Many Things I Can’t Relate to Anymore!

Life changes us, I don’t care what some people say. I have a friend who maintains that people do not really change and that we just keep working on the same issues over and over again. That might be true for some people, but I think that parenthood, and especially single parenthood has changed me in all sorts of ways. There are some people, ideas, and “things” that I just cannot relate to anymore… Of course, there are plenty of people in my life who either knew me as a young pre-parent adult, or have only known me as a … Continue reading →

Balancing Heart and Mind

As a single parent, I can get a little too heavy on the check lists and life goals. I suppose it is because I feel like I have little room for error and maybe a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I think in the back of my brain I imagine I must have something to prove. Other single parents might be heavy on the emotions and less into the practical goals. Finding a balance is important for all of us—finding a way to rely on both our brains and our hearts to guide us on the single parent … Continue reading →

Walk Away to Gain Perspective

I have yet to meet a home business owner who didn’t wrestle with problems at various stages in building a business. It is just the nature of things that we will need to put on our problem-solving hat and figure out how to fix things, work with challenging people, and grow and expand our businesses. I have found, however, that when answers just are not coming—sometimes it is necessary to walk away in order to allow some perspective to develop in order to solve the problem. I am not talking about complete abandonment here, but instead allowing time and space … Continue reading →

Imagine Things from Your Child’s Perspective

Most of the time, I think of myself as a fairly level-headed and reasonably evolved person and I can usually figure out what is going on for ME when it comes to family life and interactions with my kids. I don’t’ always do such a great job of seeing things from their point of view. When we are at an impasse or a standstill or my kids are behaving in ways that don’t really make a lot of sense to me, I find it helps if I can get myself to imagine what things might look like from my child’s … Continue reading →

Understanding that Customers, Clients and Colleagues Do Have a Life

Getting irritated at the behaviors of our clients and customers (not to mention colleagues and vendors) may seem like it comes with the work territory of running one’s own business—but it doesn’t have to be that way. I think it helps us to remind ourselves that other people really do have a life and while some of their choices might be inconvenient to us—they are normally not intended to be personal or mess up our schedules and lives… If you hear yourself saying “Why are they doing this to me?!” chances are things are out of perspective. I was talking … Continue reading →

There Are People Who Are Having a Harder Time

I have found for myself that what keeps me from feeling sorry for myself or getting lost in a sea of single parent self-pity is to simply remember and remind myself that there ARE people who are having a harder time of things. For some reason, it seems to be human nature to get stuck in that “grass is greener” mentality and think that everyone has it better. But that is definitely NOT the case, and there are plenty of people who deserve our compassion and understanding as they have it far worse than we do. You may have heard … Continue reading →