Financial Choices of a Single Mom with 2 Autistic Sons

"How do you do it?" Is a question I get asked by friends, and even strangers who are married (or attached) and know the challenges of parenting, even with two adults in the home. My answer: You just do it, because there is no one else in the house that is going to do it for you. Many. if not all, single parents are well aware of this fact, especially if they live alone with their children.

I love my boys with all of my heart and soul. They are the light and laughter of my life. I work only part time, and barely make the bills every month because my youngest son, who is autistic, is only in Kindergarden, and I feel it is most important for me to be home with him in the afternoons, in order to continue to give him therapy. (As an autistic parent you are constantly giving therapy in one way or another.) This is relatively new to me, as I was just divorced and separated from my ex husband approximately a year ago. He virtually abandoned his sons, so he could concentrate on his new relationship with his new girlfriend, who he now lives with. Now, after over a year, he is ready to be a Dad again. He now makes more money than he has ever made in his entire career, and only has to have his boys part time. He lives in a completely different income bracket, so to speak, than my sons and I do. Don't get me wrong, I think my sons need their Dad, and his influence in their lives. His teachings and involvement is crucial for their development, in my opinion.

My question is this, as a single parent, which option do you choose:

a) Sacrificing the development of my children, by sticking them in a daycare that I can afford, where they will get little or no therapy and/or individual attention, so I can work full time at a job that will barely pay enough to make the daycare bills, plus all of the other monthly bills that I need to make.

b) Continue to do what I am doing now, barely scraping by each month, but raising my boys to the best of my ability, by giving them the quality time, attention, and therapy they both need to be the best that they can be. What is the answer??? Will we ever know????