Being a single mom is another level of exhaustion

Anyone that tries to convince you otherwise is selling you something.

Recently, by my choice, I’ve become a single mother. It’s been the most challenging, yet rewarding time of my life and although there are lots of things I wish I’d have done differently, I’m feeling free and I’m relearning how to live life within my new status quo and finding a sense of normalcy within the life I now live.

I’ve hit some wonderful highs and soul crushing lows, but overall it’s becoming very apparent that I can do this, even when I’m crawling out of bed in the morning, beyond exhausted and waking up kids for school and then getting them there and myself to work.

I will preface this piece by making something clear first… There was nothing majorly glaringly wrong with my husband and he did all the right things, but I became very aware that I was not able to truly love him the way he deserved to love. I found that embracing a traditional husband/wife role wasn’t being true to myself and that although I’d been taught for years/indoctrinated from birth that my worth and who I was was a straight heterosexual woman, I am in fact not straight. I am attracted to women and living the lie that I was happy with a man became something I was not being true to who I am.

With that being said, whoever started and perpetuated the lie that single moms just stay on welfare and collect paychecks and pop out kids is full of crap. Our lives are incredibly difficult. We get blamed for if our kids aren’t perfect, for our bills if they’re not paid (omg she’s so lazy), if our kids are or aren’t in daycare. It’s ridiculous.