I have a dear friend (also a single parent), whose son is graduating from THE University of Alabama today. I asked her how she felt about the accomplishment and she said it was stirring up some “weird” feelings. My kids are still young and I have several more years before high school graduation, much less college graduation, but I have to imagine some of those “weird” feelings are pride. Continue reading »
I recently read an article which stated single parenting mostly has a negative impact on the parent. While I realize single parenting is very demanding and difficult, I have to disagree with the article. I do believe it is much easier to identify the negatives of single parenting, but I believe if you look deeper, you will find the positives far outweigh the negatives. Continue reading »
Whatever the reason for becoming single parents, we all start off with some sort of plan on how we can raise our children to be the best they can be. We create routines and arrange our schedules accordingly. After the initial adjustment period our lives go through, things seem to settle down and our routine starts to work.
I have spoken with many single parents who start off just like this. The problem is, we all become comfortable and start letting things fall through the cracks. Whether it be methods of discipline, loving or teaching, it’s not always easy to stay the course.
Sometimes it’s a matter of not seeing results from the steps we have put in place, or just plain laziness. Whatever the reason, it’s important we follow through. Our kid’s future is at stake. Continue reading »
I am a firm believer that God has a plan for each of our lives. I think most people at some point in their life have become frustrated because they could not see what God’s plan for them was. Whenever I went through trying times and could not seem to find my identity, I always became frustrated because I thought I should know what God had planned for me. After years of searching, I realized I was looking for His plan in all the wrong places.
Just 4 months after my divorce, my former wife was killed in a car accident. I was so overwhelmed with the responsibility of raising three young children on my own, that I did not realize God was showing me that His plan had already been working in my life.
When my ex wife and I divorced, we agreed to equal share in custody of our children. It was a 50/50 arrangement where she had the kids one week and I had them the next. I was not happy only seeing my kids every other week, but it was the best I could hope for given the circumstances. I was going to make the best of it. Continue reading »
Anyone who has ever read one of my blogs, knows how important I believe routine is in raising healthy children. While I believe a stable routine is good for children, it can sometimes be unhealthy for parents. Parents, especially single parents often find themselves stuck in a monotonous and tedious routine completely revolving around their children. Don’t get me wrong, monotony is not a word I word ever use to describe parenting, but our routine can become just that.
We wake up each morning and then get the kids up. We get the kids ready for school and ourselves ready for work. We make breakfast. We get the kids off to school and then it’s off to work for us. We pick the kids up from school after our work day is done. We help with homework, cook dinner, get the kids bathed and ready for bed, tuck them in and then it’s off to bed for us. If we are blessed, we wake up the next morning and do it all over again. Sounds like an adrenaline junkies dream, doesn’t it?? Continue reading »
After I publish my Friday blog each week, I often wonder how I will come up with something to write about the next week. At some point, it seems the ideas will run out. What am I thinking?? This is parenting we are talking about, and the one thing parents never run out of is ideas. Each week I know at least one of my children will say or do something that will give me plenty of topics to write about.
This week it was my youngest son on one of his adventurous sleep walking episodes. Technically, it probably isn’t sleep walking. He just has a habit of waking in the middle of the night, still half asleep and wandering through the house with little clue as to what he is doing. Ask him about it the next morning and he can’t tell you what he said or did. We have some pretty good stories from it, though. Like the time I heard someone walking around about 2 in the morning, only to find it was my son who decided he needed to use the bathroom. Problem was, in his sleep induced state he mistook a house plant for the toilet and proceeded to water the plant. Again, he had no recollection of it the next morning. Continue reading »
