I’m a single parent to 3 kids ages 5,7,11 (as an aside no 3 was completely unplanned shock pregnancy and I seriously considered not going though with it).
My life and my kids lives such disastrous chaos, none of us are happy. The kids fight all the time, one child has health problems which lead to regular hospitalisations and need to be organised with medications, medical appointments etc. Oldest child has behavioural issues and suspected asd/adhd which make it really hard to do anything with all the kids as they have such a short temper and constantly has meltdowns about everything which when added to the kids fighting constantly means we can’t really go out as a family without causing an embarrassing scene everywhere we go.
When I had 2 kids it was manageable but having no3 has completely pushed me over the edge, ironically no 3 is the nicest sweetest child ever, however they are bullied and picked on by the others all the time and it’s making them unhappy.
We are constantly skint, I was employed but struggling so much with lack of childcare and missing so much work from my dc being sick that I decided to take up self employment thinking it would me more flexible but it’s actually not worked out as well as I thought. I now regularly have to drag sick dc to work with me to just so I can make ends meet. Last week I took my sick dc with me to work outdoors the day they were discharged from hospital just to make sure I had enough money to take my prearranged holidays this week.
I’m an absolute failure as a parent, I can’t keep on top of things, shamefully medication was lost and not replaced in good time because I couldn’t find time to go to the chemist and my dc ended up hospitalised as a result. I work full time, get home around 5:30 and then take the kids to sports most nights. I rarely have time to spend with my kids just talking to them and they are all deprived of attention which is probably why they fight so much and are so badly behaved. It’s impossible to consistently discipline them because we are always busy rushing from one place to another and they don’t seem to care what I say to them anyway. When I’m at home I’m constantly working my way through piles of laundry and unsuccessfully attempting to keep on top of the rest of the house which is an unbelievable mess most of the time and the kids just run around making more and more mess. I get so stressed that I shout at them horribly all the time. They tell me everyday that they hate me and to be honest I don’t blame them. I’m without a doubt the worst parent I know.
How do I get out of this never ending misery? I have to work to be able to support us financially but my kids need me to spend time with them. I need to organise my life but I have no energy or time to do anything about it. They go to their dads eow )he refuses to have them more often) and I will try and get in top of the house etc but there is just so much to do and everything I need to do tends to be impossible at weekends eg organising medical appointments or dealing with school etc. I feel so drained and tired all the time it’s hard to even focus on dealing with all the problems.