Single Parenting During Covid-19
My first thought about parents who are truly without any support system. One of the parents is gone and you are on 24/7 with no school, no sports, and no neighborhood kids to play with. That sounds like a recipe for madness. How do you find God and yourself without falling asleep when you are finally alone? I imagine that unless you have insomnia, this can be impossible. I want to encourage neighbors to volunteer watching children for starters and understand how fear might stop that.
I mentioned this to a friend today and she said that her next door neighbor is a single parent that works outside the home. The grandmother had flown out to homeschool her grandchildren so the mother could work. Keeping that little story in mind - perhaps the best wisdom on how to endure for another couple of weeks can come from experienced single parents in your community. There are ways to strengthen bonds within a small social circle despite the inevitable conflicts of living during an uncertain and anxious time.
Maybe a private group online video - such as Google Meets - can be a starter place to diffuse helplessness and frustrations. Kind of like AA - a weekly meeting where you tune in to your own weaknesses and successes. Living at close range often you allow yourself things that you would never dare do or say to a stranger.
I don’t pretend to have any answers, but I have learned that empathy (understanding in some small way someone elses pain), may be the best thing you can do for someone or receive from a friend. When you need to vent, isn’t it nice to know that someone will listen without offering any advice. Advice tends to sound judgmental anyway. As if you haven’t thought it through and tried everything any person with common sense would try.
This is short and sweet because I truly don’t have any answers. Rather than end the conversation here, I want to invite any single parent with children living at home to tell us what your experience has been lately. Your story could be the difference between intense isolation and feeling a sense of you are not alone. The hope that there is life out there and things will get back to a new normal, maybe even a better normal. Please share in the comments below. Thank you for being one of my readers and stay well as much as you can. I am praying for all of you now.
