I had no idea how hard it was to be a single parent, until I got a rather nasty e-mail from someone about an article I had written. My mother was a single parent when I was growing up, and I know that things were always hard for her. She did a remarkable job, and I’m always proud of her for what she has done. I guess being a single parent is one of those things that you can actually understand until you are one. I wrote my article with the intention of helping single parents find resources and help when things were tough. One particular thing I wrote about in my article was single parent groups. This apparently was something this particular single parent did not want to hear about from me.
Though the e-mail was nasty, I believe the nastiness was not directed entirely at me. She informed me that there could be single parent groups all over the world, but they would never help her. She said that single parents have too much on their mind to think about going out to find support groups within their community. I do not have the heart to tell her that all of the research I had done for my article had come from other single parents I had talked to. I am not a single parent myself, so I make sure I got of ideas and opinions from those who were. One thing they all talked about was the single parent groups in their communities.
I had never known that single parent groups existed. A few of these people told me that they would not know what to do had they not had the support from these types of people. Single parent groups are often formed by single parents, and are exclusively there for those who do not have a partner to help them raising their children. They offer ideas, suggestions, and support for single parents when they needed the most. I felt that this was a fascinating idea, and included this information, along with a web address to a popular support group web page. This apparently, was not enough for the woman sending me this e-mail.
Though I deleted the e-mail after I read it, I still remember it quite well. She did not find support in any single parent groups, and it made me wonder if there were others out there like her who were struggling through life and resisting any help that was offered. While I still can’t say I understand what it is like to be a single parent, I do understand the frustrations of parenting when one spouse seems to missing all the time. Yes, I know this is nowhere near the same, but it gives me a little idea of what it must be like. She may not have wanted to join single parent groups, but I know there are many out there who benefit greatly from these types of things. I don’t know who she was or where she is in her life now, but I hope she is doing much better now.
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