Search Results for: blog taking care of your support system

Give Yourself Some Girl Time

Between Logan and school my schedule is pretty tight right now. I don’t have a lot of time outside of my normal motherly duties to spend with my girlfriends, but I was reminded again today of just how important that time is. After a particularly difficult weekend I got a text from one of my good friends that said how much she would love for a couple of us to get together and go out to lunch this week. I immediately text back to find out when and where. I desperately needed some time out with the girls. We laughed … Continue reading →

Taking Care of Your Support System

As a single parent it’s hard to ask for help. We want to be able to take care of everything ourselves and we don’t want to be a bother to other people. Sometimes we need help, there’s no way around it. You get stuck in a meeting at work and can’t pick your child up from school or daycare and have to call someone to ask for help. Do you have people you can go to in a situation like that? It’s always best to have a safety net in place, even if you never need it. You should have … Continue reading →

Don’t Let Chronic Illness Harm Your Marriage

There is a very interesting article in the September issue of More Magazine that talks about how marriages change once chronic illness enters the picture. According to the story, couples who consist of at least one spouse with a chronic illness have a divorce rate of 75%! And other couples who stay together say that they are only still married because of the insurance. This is some pretty scary information. So how can you prevent a chronic illness from taking down your marriage? The couples that do stay together and are happy may have a few secrets up their sleeves. … Continue reading →

Can Your Relationships Use a Little More Attention?

Here in the Single Parents blog we often talk about either our interactions with our children or our ex or have conversations about dating. There ARE other relationships in our lives—those with friends and family—and it may be the reality that those are the relationships that need a little more attention and a little more work. With all of the stresses and daily details we need to pay attention to, it may be our friendships that actually see the least of us. Why is it that our friendships seem to be the first thing we neglect or abandon when times … Continue reading →

Evaluating Your Stress Level

Life isn’t always smooth sailing. Periodic stress is a normal part of life! However, stress that goes on for a long time (chronic stress) should not be a normal part of life. Every person handles stress differently. What I find stressful and what you find stressful may be two very different scenarios! Perception is a big part of how stressed you feel. One person may look at all the things you do in a day and think they would be stressed — yet you aren’t. But because stress is so very personal, it may be hard to evaluate your stress … Continue reading →

Adoption Options for Single Parents: Adopting from the Child Welfare System

Unmarried individuals may wonder about their options for parenting. Certainly parenting a child who needs you is an admirable goal. Some individuals may not feel they can parent without the support of a partner. Certainly the support for you and the role modeling for your child are advantages to having a partner, but many single parents do adopt successfully. As one children’s worker stated, “All children really need to thrive is someone who’s crazy about them.” Perhaps you can be that person for a child. The U.S. foster care system is very open to adoptions from single parents. Older child … Continue reading →

What Age Is Right To Purchase Long-Term Care Insurance?

I started this series of Blogs about Long-Term Care Insurance by pointing out the fact that most of us will face a situation either in our own lives or with the life of someone we love where we have to consider making choices about long-term care needs. Insurance is about protecting our assets from catastrophic loss due to a cause specified. Some of our parents and even ourselves are in situations where we can cover the costs of long-term care and some of us have the means to provide care for our aging parents. Depending only on Medicare or Medicaid … Continue reading →

Taking Care of the Caretaker

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I am one of the primary caretakers for my eighty year old grandmother. Some days are better than others; some days are very frustrating and make me want to scream. If you are responsible for the care of another person — be it a parent, child, or friend — don’t forget to take some time for yourself. Being a caretaker is not an easy job. You risk emotional depletion from dealing with an ill or incapable family member — you give and give and give and expect very little in return. You may become isolated because you are spending so … Continue reading →

Single Parent Chaos

It was one of those mornings. They seem to happen much more frequently as a single parent than they did when I was married. I am in the middle of my college finals this week. This is stressful in and of itself; then you add a three year old in the mix and things get slightly more stressful (ever tried studying with a three year old?); to top things off you’re doing it on your own, there’s no one there to give you a 20 minute study break, you simply learn to multi-task like a mad woman. As if this … Continue reading →

Getting a Handle on the Stresses of Being a Single Parent

Everyone knows that being a single parent is stressful. Face it, you’ve got a lot on your plate and no one to help you balance it all. Stress is just a way of life when you are parenting on your own. And for those of us that get overwhelmed easy, it can be a nightmare. Trying to get finances worked out, dealing with the ex, getting kids ready for school, taking them to all their appointments, making sure that dinner is on the table, making sure the house is in order. There’s a lot to deal with. Here are a … Continue reading →