10 Things You Learn From Being Raised By A Single Mother
There’s nothing more powerful than an independent woman.
--
By Trisha Bartle
1. There’s nothing more powerful than an independent woman. It isn’t until she’s on her own that a single mother learns she can do all of this herself. You learn from watching your single mother than you can fix your own toilet, shovel your own driveway, mow your own lawn. When the outside influences are stripped away, a woman can do anything she sets her mind to.
2. There are some creative ways to have fun when you have little or no money. With only one income and one or more children to care for and feed, money’s often tight when you’re raised by a single mom. You grow up learning that you can still have fun without the excess cash. From scavenger walks in the woods to building forts for movie nights at home, you don’t need money to be happy and fulfilled.
3. You don’t need to be in a relationship to be happy. There’s immense value in watching a woman have a happy life while single. You learn that it isn’t taboo or shameful to be without a relationship. This way, you realize that it’s better to wait for the right person that to go from one relationship to another, filling the gap with people who might not be good enough.
4. When you go through rough times, you’ll survive. When you don’t have two incomes or two adults to support a household, you’re inevitably left with rough times. Welfare, food stamps, charity. Rather than the picture-perfect childhoods you see on TV, you learn early in your life that things don’t always go your way. But you survive, and you eventually thrive, and you carry that skill into adulthood.
5. Struggle just makes you stronger. There’s something you have that other people don’t. By watching your mom going through it, carrying you through tough times and surviving, you learn things that someone who was born in a traditional nuclear family doesn’t. You know how to budget better, you know how to stretch a grocery budget and making dinner out of barely anything. And you appreciate it more once you do have money.
6. It’s okay to break down every once in a while. Things won’t always go your way. And raising kids on your own is hard. No matter how…
