I’m all for women doing whatever they want with their surname, but to show disappointment that most of us (that you have met, anyway) have not done what you have done is very toxic thinking. My surname is great - but it’s my dads. I don’t have my mothers surname because my parents divorced light years ago. I grew up with my mum though, so should I have changed my surname to reflect my mother instead of my father? Why were you given your fathers surname instead of your mothers? Aren’t you just passing down a male lineage instead of a female one then? I have given my children both the surname of their father. I have my original surname. This has proved ridiculously problematic with official documentation for doctors and health visits, education enrollments and sports activities etc. I am now faced with the decision as to whether I want to remove my dads name from my name and replace it with the surname of the person I absolutely adore and love (the one that also matches that of my children). I will personally go for that option because I want to. Not because someone owns me or because it’s what people do. I made this choice because I want to and I am very happy about it. Does this make me any less of a feminist? Does this make me judge those that want to keep their father’s surname? Absolutely not. Each woman can do whatever the f they want. That’s what women’s rights are about. We get to choose our futures and make decisions based on what we want - not what others dictate. 

I am a child of a single mum. My mum didn’t have enough money to support my brother and I growing up so at the age of 14 and nine months I got myself a job to help pay the bills and have contributed to rent, groceries and bills since. Your “child” is old enough to have had a job for at least the last three years. Yes it sucks being a single mum, yes it’s sucks being a mum in general because we give up so much for the sake of our kids (I’ve had to put my entire career on hold because I can’t work your standard 40 hour week with two kids under 5). But what women are is resilient. I never looked back on getting a job so young - it taught me to respect and value things such as food and clothes and a bed to sleep in. Compared to my friends whose parents “wanted them to focus on school” and bought everything for them. They created entitled monsters. Sure it sucks that the child support stops at 18 (my mum wasn’t that lucky she didn’t get any child support for us) but your child should be out there contributing to the economy by now so that she knows the hustle. You’re a great role model however you need to show her stuff ain’t free.