
The role of a sole parent is undoubtedly often one far more complex, exhausting, stressful and difficult than that of most families where two parents (or more) are active in raising a child.
My perspective when saying this is not from being one myself but from that of an only child, who grew up with a sole parent, my mother.
I grew up never knowing my father. For me, my mum was my everything. She provided for the both of us in every way a parent can: financially, physically and emotionally.
Perhaps one of the best mother-daughter duos in the history of TV, Kath and Kim share their words of wisdom:
She put on every parent hat that was in existence. She was the breadwinner, the good cop, the bad cop, the disciplinarian, the friend, the one who washed my clothes and cooked my dinner.
The one who helped me with my homework, the one who read me stories, who played Wonder Boy on the Sega Mega Drive and the board game Nightmare (because you couldn’t play it alone).
She picked up the yellow plastic bat and played totem tennis in the backyard with me despite being the furthest from sporty you could ever possibly be.
We moved into my family home, the first house my mum had ever owned or would ever own, when I was five-years-old. It wasn’t an idyllic family home in a street with a leafy canopy of trees. It was a small red brick house, identical to ten others along the same avenue in a housing commission area in regional Victoria.
My mother is a well-educated woman, the first in our family to attend university and to be awarded a degree. She was a full-time secondary school teacher for over twenty years at our local government high school. She was passionate about education and was brilliant at it.
But every cent of the money she earned went in to providing the best opportunities for me. She sacrificed so many other things to provide me that because she wanted to own a house. She wanted it to be an asset for us, for me in the future, so she made the decision to buy in an area that wasn’t considered desirable. The decision to do this was hard for her but making these tough decisions is part and parcel with being a sole parent.
We drove around in a falling apart Datsun. The side mirror was literally being held on by some sort of string so my mum could still use it. We couldn’t afford another car because our money went toward the mortgage, offering me opportunities to travel overseas through school trips, to participate in activities and for everyday expenses.
Although my mum never let on when I was growing up that doing all of this would have been so incredibly difficult and strenuous in every possible way, I can see as an adult and now as a parent myself how challenging it must have been for her.
Top Comments
Thank you for this - your article was exactly what I needed to read. My daughter is only one and I worry every day about her future but this article was so beautifully written, it’s obvious your mum did a wonderful job with you. You are both an inspiration.
Sending this to a friend whose daughter is also growing up without her father. Thank you for sharing such a positive story.