Parenting is Hard

Some days I just love being a mom. My kids are so cute and smart and wonderful.

Then there are days like this. It has been incident after incident after incident. On days like this I wonder, "have I been parenting at all? Whose children are these people?"

Sometimes I worry that as a working/business-owning single mom that I am just not focused in enough. Yes, I'm with them probably much more than a typical married mom who sends her kids to school and various after-school activities. But on a day like today I wonder how so much could have slipped past me and then all come out in one day.

It's days like this where I do kind of wish that there were someone else to share in the responsibility (or maybe the blame) with. Or at least a shoulder to cry on.

Sick Days

One of my kids has a fever. I'll be honest, I get scared when my kids get sick. I'm not really scared for them. I'm scared for me. I worry that I will get sick too. And I'm afraid of being sick because as a single mom, I am the only one here to take care of them. When I was married I always knew that I could call my husband home from work if I just couldn't take care of them by myself. But now there is no one to call. It is all on me.

And now that I provide the only income for my family I worry that I won't be able to work. I don't get sick days. Any work I miss I either need to make up or refund.

I have to talk myself through it. I know I have friends and family who would go to the store and drop off groceries on my front porch. And my kids are getting older. They really can be quite self-sufficient when they need to be. And I do have a little money saved up if I had to take a loss in income. And God has always been faithful. We have been really healthy during the years I have been on my own.

But still, I get nervous.