Navigating holiday visitation schedules can be war. Before firing the next shot, think of the kids.

An acquaintance asked recently why I still talk and write about my single mother days. As if that time in a parent’s life – for me it spanned a decade – could ever be erased, or irrelevant. My time as a single mother is still the best explanation for how I came to be who I am, even now.  

The person who asked this question meant to be kind, but she has never been a single parent and didn’t know me back in the day. She assumes my memories consist mostly of loneliness and loss. I knew my share of that, and too many sleepless nights when I roamed the halls like a ghost in my own home worried about money and my kids and money, always money.