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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to want to give lone parents a

110 replies

ALMummy · 07/04/2008 09:10

medal.

Have had food poisoning for the past two days during which time I was unable to get up off the bathroom floor for four hours let alone take care of my DC. DH sorted them out and then got his Mum over for the rest of the time.

When I started feeling better it made me realise how bloody hard it must be for lone parents without much support of which I know there are a fair few on MNet. I was incapable (I felt) of looking after my kids but loads dont have any choice do they? and just have to get on with it. Just made me realise how much more you have to deal with as a lone parent.

OP posts:

OverMyDeadBody · 07/04/2008 21:13

medals for all

alittleone2 the lone parent topic can be such a gloomy depressing place though! Let's all stay here and gorge ourselves on chocolate and be merry, I'v started on the wine already too, want some?

Original poster

ALMummy · 07/04/2008 21:14

Have been lying down again all day today still recovering so only just looked at the responses for this thread. I am surprised to see that anyone managed to get anything negative out of my OP or use it to have a rant about their partners ex. That not what it was for at all.

All I know is that I dont know how I would have managed on my own the past couple of days and I wouldnt have liked to have to try. So I applaud those of you that do and not just when you are ill either but every single day. It is not something I had ever really thought about before.

OP posts:

ElfOnTheTopShelf · 07/04/2008 21:16

I am always amazed, if that doesn't sound condescending.
During December I was really poorly, it started off with a few horrible days on and off of being sick/exhausted, and wound up with me being in hospital with the docs thinking I'd had a stroke (I'm 26)
In the beginning when I was sick, DD had been sick on a Thurs night so I'd told work I wouldn't be in, but I woke up on Fri and was just unable to do anything. I called my parents, they came to pick me & dd up (she couldn't go to the cm). I basically passed out at my parents house at 11 in the morning (after my mother had dressed me to get there!) and woke up the following morning at 10.
A few days later, I was sick again. The childminder helped me out, picking up DD whilst I basically was on the sofa unable to move.
A week or so later, I was in hospital. I had a couple of days there of tests etc, with DD being looked after by my parents whilst DH was trekking to the hospital / working to keep money coming in. When I got out, I was signed off for two weeks, and everybody rallied around to help with my DD.
I did remember wondering how the hell I would have coped as a single paren with no support unit.

OverMyDeadBody · 07/04/2008 21:17

Thasnk AlMummy, your recognition of how hard it can be for single parents meant a lot to me, as I'm sure it did to all the other single parents out there!

Paddlechick666 · 07/04/2008 21:20

oooh yes, wine is great. 2nd glass for me, on a Monday

Now, I don't wish to be ungrateful but I can't be doing with Cadbury chocolate medals.

Can I have mine as Green & Blacks? Or at the very least Galaxy?

ps: just remembered first (and only(so far) thank god) D&V session for me when dd was about 17months involved allowed her to toilet paper the bathroom whilst I vom'd for Wales!

LBA · 07/04/2008 22:12

Its mumsnet Almummy, someone will always find something negative! But its a lovely thought which im sure many of us appreciated, hope you feel better soon.

skyatnight · 07/04/2008 22:30

alittleone2
Re. my 'bigotted' comment, I didn't say that all step-parents are bigotted or that all lone parents are. I didn't phrase it well but I think what I meant was that, once a thread turns into a discussion about lone parents, some of us who are lone parents OR step-parents get defensive and feel that we should try to represent other single parents or step-parents. We sometimes resort to telling our own personal stories as a way of trying to set the record straight. But it just polarises the discussion and turns everything into an endless rant. It can be fun to go round and round in circles endlessly but I've been on too many of these threads recently and I didn't feel it was in the spirit of the OP for this thread to go the same way.

Apart from that, I think we are in agreement. There is no such thing as the typical lone parent, step-parent, parent who lives with their child or parent who doesn't or whatever your terminology of choice is. Lots of people struggle, we are all just people.

I still think it was nice of the OP to give recognition to people who are struggling with being ill and looking after children on their own with no support. This is a classic situation for many lone parents which we dread. You know because you have been there. But many parents in two-parent families can find themselves in this situation too, if both parents are ill or one parent is away or working long hours and/or they have no backup support nearby...etc..

skyatnight · 07/04/2008 22:31

Yes thanks ALMummy. Get well soon.

LBA · 07/04/2008 22:39

Well that one little comment in the op made my day for sure. I should bloody frame it (because it doesn't happen often here)

Seriously op, ive been feeling really down just lately about our whole situation and you've cheered me up no end

Remotew · 07/04/2008 22:48

Almummy, thanks from me as well. Got my medal

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