Single Parent Households: Working as a Team

There is a lot of patients involved in raising five children as a single parent. I am here to testify to that fact. I have been doing this for the past ten years and more. I have four boys and one girl. There ages were five, six, ten, and two that were eleven, all from the father. It was much easier when they were younger even though there seemed to be more worry involved. I thought it got easier as they got older but, I would really have to ponder on that one. As a working parent you have to have some kind of organization no matter what the ages might be.

I always tried to encourage my children to work together as a team. It wasn't always easy. With the kind of hours I had they had to take on independence at a very young age. My oldest ones were only pre-teens when they became responsible for waking up on their own for school, and taking charge of helping to send off their two younger siblings who were only in Kindergarten and First Grade.

It was a trying time for all of us. I would have to say it was a bit tougher on them because they had to mature at a faster rate than many of their friends. We were starting out on a new way of life and only each other to lean on. The world can be a cold hard place to live in and there were times when we experienced just that! We learned what it meant to be a team.

Since all of us had a job, whether it was going to school or in my case being the bread winner, there were still things that had to be taken care of around the house. There was the laundry, supper, the dreaded dishes chore, and cleaning the house and going for groceries. All of these things were divided among us. Naturally, the younger ones would only be responsible for keeping their messes cleaned up the first few years.

Sometimes we would have our conflicts and disorder would occur. I devised a family meeting at least once a month where we could vent any problems that were happening. It was a time when if anyone had something to say about how things were being handled they could freely speak and feel comfortable with making any suggestions on how they would like to see things worked out. It seemed to be a workable solution in our household.