Being a lone parent to a 3 yr old is HARD. I was definitely in the ‘all fed, nobody dead’ mantra phase of my life at that point, and I had a partner to help me out.
It will get easier, and you will start to get more time again… and the best part of this is that being a mum makes you so much more fecking efficient with time that although it’s far less time than you had pre child you will be amazed at what you manage to do with it!
But since you are still in the tunnel of mum of small child I appreciate me waving a light at the end of it might not be very helpful, so some practical little candles to help you along the way…
Become believer in the joy of little things - buy a mug that makes you happy and smile every time you have your tea in it, have a soeical soap that smells nice to pick you up on particularly grey days. My smallest little thing that brought joy was the feeling of the smoothness of a new bit of pavement on the way to the shops!
think about how you’d write about you if you were an outsider looking to write a ‘puff’ positive article… I’m sure there are lots of incredible things you do but discount when tired.
feeling haggard is hard, so pick a small change each week that will feel like a step in the right direction, for example this week I am going to work at drinking enough water each day, or this week I am going to find time to actually use the face cream I bought every day, and slowly they all build up and you will hopefully feel better.
as for meeting someone else- it willl happen in time, but likely when you have more time… so for now I’d focus on you, and the things you can influence to help make you feel better.
I hope you feel less sad soon 💐