Being a Single Parent....When you have no team.

I always talk and sometimes blog about how our family is like a team.  I love sports and teams are a huge part of the sports world, so that is why I usually try and make family and teams come together somehow in the ways that they work.

One thing I don't know about is being a single parent.  Never have been and hopefully will never be one either.  Breaking away from the team concept of sports, I am interested in what sport single parents think relates to them the most. I know that single parents have the extended family that can be considered part of the team, I am simply talking about the Single Parent. Just Them.

For example, Golf.  Golf is a single person sport in which you do play against others but you are trying to be better than you were the last time you were out playing.  Takes so much thought and you have to make sure that you do it almost perfectly.  You have no help, no one to pick up slack when you hit a bad shot.  You can have bad shots and want to break your clubs.  Kind of like having a bad day with the kids and wanting to lock yourself in the bathroom.  Its just you against the rest of the field of golfers.

Take tennis. I love tennis. But again, its you against that person across from you. Its a fast paced and hard hitting sport that can run you around all over and yet at the end of the match you may still wind up a loser. You may have so many fans clapping for you but the other person across from you might be better than you on a given day.  You can have moments you want to retire from a match, kind of like giving up on a day when the kids are too much, but you stick it out.

T was raised by a single mom. I was raised by a single mom for 10 years. Both of our parents had help from grandparents.  You could maybe consider those grandparents as the staff trainers or asst. coaches.  But her mom and my mom had to do by themselves for a long time.

Its hard being a parent when you have a loving, dedicated hard working spouse to do it with you. When you have a team and you can rely on that teammate to help get you through that hard time it makes you see that you can do it and someone does have your back.

TEAM PARENTING

This may be my favorite and best example of how a teammate

has your back during the toughest of times.

(Michael Jordan Flu Game)

SINGLE PARENTING

Often times a golfer misses a putt that seemed to be so simple

but just like parenting, nothing is ever easy.

Probably harder when doing it alone.

As a married man, and never having to do the hardest thing in world which I believe is raising a child by yourself, I am interested in hearing about what YOU the single parent has to say and what sport would you compare being a single parent to.

Kiss The Baby