Member-only story
How Being Single Made Me a Better Parent
I went into being a parent expecting to have a partner. When that fell through, it made me a better parent.
I was 21 when I got pregnant, and when my then-boyfriend and father of my child promised to be there no matter what, I was confident that I had a solid partner in this parenting gig.
Fast forward three years, and my second child is 20 days old as a judge finalizes my divorce from their father. It was not what I had planned when I decided to have a child, but I’d known for a while it was inevitable.
I never judged single parents, but I had never envisioned being one myself. I felt like parenting was supposed to be a two-person deal. Yet suddenly, I had joined the ranks of single parents and I didn’t even have the comfort of knowing my ex would be there for my kids.
It didn’t take him long to disappear from their lives, and then I was truly solo parenting. And for as scary as it had once seemed, it didn’t take long for me to realize that I was a better parent single than married.
A miserable relationship makes your entire life miserable
There were so many problems in my marriage. Infidelity, abuse, lies, in-laws who didn’t even try to…
