Mother's Day

Ahhhhh, Mother’s Day is here again, the one day a year when we celebrate our mothers. Really…that’s all we get?... One Day? Well that’s better than zero days isn’t it.

I think mothers should be celebrated every day – not just because I am one, but because they are the heroes of our lives from the beginning to the end.

Whether we are talking about stay at home Moms or working moms, new moms or old moms... they are all heroes on a daily basis, doing the things no one else will do, the things no one else thinks of. This is not meant to disparage dads in any way, dads are the cake... moms are the frosting. However, with the rate of single mothers ever rising, moms are the cake and the frosting in many children’s lives.

Worldwide around sixteen percent of children are raised by a single parent, with over 81% of those households being led by a single mother. That is astonishing to me. In the United States those numbers are slightly higher with around 20% of households being run by a single parent.

In the U.S. alone we have over fifteen million households led by single mothers and about five million by single fathers. Even though the total number of homes led by single mothers is around 15% of the total U.S. households, the total number of U.S. children in those households is just over one-third. That’s over fifteen million American children being raised by a single mother with one-fourth of those living below the poverty line. Only about 38% of single parent households actually receive all of the child support ordered by the courts, leaving a huge financial gap in the lives of millions of children. These numbers are staggering. Today one of every three children in the United States lives without a father in the home, a number that has doubled since 1960.

This Mother’s Day article is for all the single moms out there. Those moms are the super heroes of the world, many times holding down more than one job to support their children, while still doing the cooking, cleaning, nursing, and fixing. Those mothers are too often called to stay at home and nurse sick children, losing valuable and necessary paid time at work.

I’ve witnessed firsthand how single mothers torment themselves about the choices they must make between earning money and being there to give their children the nurturing they so desperately need. Single motherhood is so rarely a conscious choice made by a mother, but more often is the result of circumstances such as divorce or abandonment by a partner, sometimes the death of the other parent, and many times the result of a momentary lapse in judgment. Only a miniscule percentage of these super heroes have consciously chosen this difficult path, however, a huge percentage of them rise to the occasion, doing whatever it takes to handle the difficult daily tasks of being both mother and father to one or more children.

Let’s face it. It’s hard enough to survive the early years of motherhood with all your faculties intact when you have a partner to help you. I cannot fathom doing it alone and ending up with a modicum of sanity left. Single mothers have no reprieve, no time to recoup their much needed energy and sanity, because there is no one else to pick up the slack.

I am humbled by the single mothers I know. I am humbled by the way they go through each day full of unrelenting demands of being both parents with a smile on their faces and such love and dedication to their children.

I wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful loving moms out there, and an extra special Happy Super Heroes Day to all the single moms out there. You rock!

Peace and blessings to all!