Being a Single Mom Is Nothing New

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again, there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9

Being a single mom is absolutely nothing new. Single mom’s date back to biblical times. Hagaar was a single mom, as well as the widow at Zarephath. I know right, I never would have thought there were single mom’s mentioned in the Bible. But there are. If you are interested in the stories they can be found in Genesis 16 (The story of Hagaar) and 1 Kings 17:7-16 (the widow at Zarephath).

There have been some amazing single mom’s throughout history:

Scientist Marie Curie (1867—1934) is best known for being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, she also raised her two young daughters alone after her husband died in an accident in 1906.
Irena Sendler, a single mother of 3, (1910—2008) was a Polish employee at the Warsaw Social Welfare Department who smuggled almost 2500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, saving their lives.
J.K. Rowling wrote the first four Harry Potter books as a single mother (while briefly receiving state benefits to get by), and she now serves as the president of Gingerbread, an organization that works with single parents and their children find resources and programs to help them succeed. She has even said she is prouder of her yours as a single mother than any other part of her life.
Dr. Dana Suskind, a widowed mother of three, is a pediatric surgeon at the University of Chicago who founded the Thirty Million Words Initiative to encourage parents to talk frequently to their babies.
Mary Kay Ash (1918—2001) was 45 years old when she founded Mary Kay Cosmetics in 1963, and it has since become a billion-dollar cosmetics company. As a single mom, she was working in sales at a home products company to support her three children, but she was repeatedly passed over for promotions, despite her being one of the top sales directors.

Just to name a few. If you want to read about more inspiring single moms check out https://www.yourlocalsecurity.com/blog/2011/06/15/top-100-most-inspiring-single-moms/

Now I’m not trying to down play single dads by any means. I am simply coming at it from my perspective as a mother. I know how embarrassing it can be to be looked at as a single mom. How you really have to force yourself to believe you can do it and you are strong enough. I know how even once you know what an amazing mother you are and how you don’t need anyone to take care of you and your babies (especially a man...hahaha); how degrading and frustrating it makes you feel when men seem to view you as needy, desperate and looking for rescue. All us single mom’s out there, know this isn’t the case. We are strong. We provide for ourselves and our children. We don’t take crap from anyone. We are resourceful. We don’t need rescuing. We don’t want to throw ourselves at any man who shows us a bit of attention. In fact, if it came down to a man vs my child. My child wins every time.

Anyway, my main purpose in writing this post was for inspiration. I never thought to actually sit down and look at single mom’s and the amazing things they can do. Where they came from, the struggles they faced, and most importantly, the amazing children they raised. From my experience, most children raised by single parents (in healthy environments) have nothing but huge respect and admiration for their parent. They know the struggles, love, hard work and sacrifice that went into being a single parent. They might not have seen it as children, but once they grew up, they sure did. Anyway, single parenting isn’t new. Being a single mother isn’t new. So stop treating it like some taboo thing. Let's change the stigma and stereotype of what a single mother is. Let's stop shaming single parents for doing such a hard job on their own. In fact, let's stop shaming all together!!

Stand up! Be proud! Be strong! Instill good morals and values on your children! Show your children that hard work and never giving up, pays off in the end!