There is a online parenting community to which I belong. There are many groups within that community and one is specifically for single parents. I have found over the last 19 months of single-parenthood that I have little or nothing in common with many of the single mothers in that group. Today I made the momentous decision to cut the cord that is the Single Mom Group.
I have questioned, over the last 19 months, why the only topics that can be discussed on the aforementioned board include the hatred of the following: the ex. The baby-daddy. The ex's family. Custody battles. The ex's lawyer. Being tired. Being poor. Being alone. Being celibate. Working. Depression. Kids that get on the nerves.
So, in celebration of being a single mother, I will shout from the rooftops that I love, love, LOVE! being a single mother. I love the screaming toddler. I love cuddling with my sweet boy after a long day at work. I love the dishes, the laundry, the mess, the diaper changes, the tantrums, the bills, the stress, the sleepless nights. I love it all. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
There were days that I would reach my level of stress. One day, I stepped outside my meager, small apartment to have some peace. Then, I realized that this is the life that I was born for. I could choose, yes, choose, to be stressed or revel in every minute of this life with my beautiful boy.
I chose that day to fix his Thomas the Tank Engine fourteen, fifteen, sixteen times and not lose patience. I lay on the floor with my son and played. I was the bossy engine, Spencer, and we played and played and played.
My own single mother who raised ten children alone once said, "Our lives are a culmination of our choices." After she passed away, I have thought that phrase nearly every day. I am where I am because of my choices in my life.
I chose to eat poorly and not exercise, so therefore, I am overweight. I chose the career field that I work in, so I am stuck in a field that may never pay well. I chose to being a single mom, therefore, I am that choice and everything that comes with it. I can choose to be upset about it, but in the end, it is my own choice.
And it is my choice to react how I will.
I choose JOY!
