My family growing up consisted of eight children and a single mother. She was not always single, but after many years of marriage and many children, my parents could not stay together. The why's and how's are all greatly debated in my family, but both parents are no longer with us, so we have stopped the argument. Suffice it to say that my mother raised us alone.
She was an amazing woman and many people asked her how she raised such a family who are all college-educated, law-abiding citizens. Her answer was always the same, "What is the alternative?"
So, I ask the single mothers around the world, how do we do it? How do we survive on little or no sleep, scrape mashed potatoes from every surface within dinner distance, and change a "sauced" diaper, but find time to read to our little monkeys, bathe them, and connect with the very little souls that we fell in love with when we held them in that hospital bed for the first time? How do we teach them manners, but instill in them the sense of independence? How do we keep our tempers, see our hands and faces age, sacrifice so much, and love it?
The answer might be the same as the one given by my mother years ago, "What is the alternative?"
The persistence of knowing or hoping that our children will be more than we could ever be keeps us going - keeps me going, anyway. I want my son to eat better, study harder, and laugh louder than I ever did.
Because, what is the alternative?
