Number 2 Thread When You Are Fed Up With The Solitary Burden Of Single Parentdom

[Solo]

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread to all the single parents looking for a place to rant, rave, moan, share the highs and the lows and chat with people that know! It is the second thread and probably a slow one if the first is anything to go by, but it's here when we need it.

LINK TO THE FIRST THREAD

Hi Solo

Any news on your DS?

Things ok here, trying to organise finances which is a headache.... And trying to persuade ex to feed the DC when they're staying at his. You wouldn't think it was rocket science....

Just checking in. DS is playing minecraft and dd is on her way back from an after school activity with grandma. Back later when I can sit down with supper in peace.

I spoke too soon. This morning was hell-on-fucking-earth. Both DC's ran riot. Currently on lunch break enjoying some peace.

No news on Ds; he rarely contacts me :( makes me feel very deflated.

Meglet I feel for you.

Not feeding them ku ?

I asked him to write a food diary as one of them is having issues.

Breakfast - cereal
Lunch - bread and cheese
Dinner - piece of bread.

He's a chef..... Trying to make him understand is simply a hiding to nothing.

Oh solo. Your ds needs to give his head a wobble. So sorry he's being so daft.

Oh KU :( that is outrageous and he should be ashamed of himself!

Meglet thank you; hopefully he'll grow the hell up sometime soon.

Hi all. Feeling fed up today, it's too wet to put my laundry out and the slugs are eating everything. And my shower curtain just fell down . Pah.

Hope everyone else is muddling through ok..

Oh dear :( for you.

We seem a bit slow on here atm; is everything ok?

Hi solo (I'm KU but nc)

Things are quiet here, which is to be commended. DD was up from 3.30 last night so things were a little fraught. However she's now with daddy til 7pm so happily I don't have to do the bbb tonight.

Silver linings...

Catching up. Actually just finishing lunch break but I'll be back this evening.

Hello both :) It's difficult to get on here sometimes and I fully appreciate that.

Hi everyone
Does anyone have a 4 year old that they're struggling with at the moment? Currently dreading pretty much every moment with DD at the moment because it always decends into chaos. She is rude, defiant and does it do a single thing she's told without a fight. I'm fucking exhausted and always and up losing my temper and shouting because there are only so many times I can make a perfectly reasonable request or give a perfectly reasonable instruction calmly and quietly and just have it blatantly ignored. I have support but ultimately, it's still just me and I'm sick of the daily battle.

Urgh it's so hard isn't it? DD is 3.5 but sometimes it's so relentless you end up losing your rag.

I'm not sure what you do already, but I find counting down works with mine. I won't engage in fighting or debate as I'm just too fucking knackered most of the time, so I say X in 5 mins, X in one minute, right now we're doing X.

If X isn't done I'll count from three and that usually works. I might bargain a bit by saying she can carry on doing Y when we've finished X, or maybe she can bring a toy with her or something which sweetens it a bit.

If I've counted down and nothing is happening then consequences usually involve X happening by force, ie if we're leaving somewhere she'll be picked up and carried, or leaving the house I'll "go" and leave her to catch up. If it's putting toys away I'll offer to help (as long as she's also doing it) or the toy(s) go on a high shelf for a while. That threat usually works.

Anyway they are my initial thoughts! Don't know if that's useful, we're all just feeling our way really!

No more 4yo's here, but you have my sympathy

Hello everyone.

I'm mum to 3 lovely boys, 11,8 and 2. I work full time and xh has them every other weekend. This will be the first summer holiday I have done alone and its scaring me- its a bloody nightmare scheduling in all the holiday clubs etc and non-standard start/finish times even when there is someone else to help out (supposedly, although that never happened!)

Im looking forward to going away camping with thwm though, i have a camper van which weve never used for holidays and so with that and my easy-to-put up tent, we'll have a blast! I hope. Although think theyll miss their dad.

Hope Friday finds you all in happy places!

Hi SnS welcome aboard! I am sooooooo envious of your camper van ; I'm thinking about taking Dd (9) away for a few days camping myself, but all I have is a pop up tent and sleeping bags. It's my dream to have a motor home, but I feat that by the time I have one, Dd will have flown the nest or at the least be 18 and won't want to go away with her old Mum :(

*fear!

Thanks Solo :)

It's my weekend "off" and I'm bored already. I feel like these weekends are the only time I can be "me" and when they get here, I don't know what to do with myself despite my big plans!

Hi SnS!

I'm another one jealous of your campervan! We are setting off on a round uk tour next week, just in the car, visiting friends and family. It seemed a good idea at the time.... Now I'm looking at the number of miles I'll be driving and wondering if that amount of time in the car with everyone on top of each other is madness.... Plus how are we going to ensure we've got clean clothes....

Argh. Holiday regret!

If anyone hears sobbing in the next hour it's me killing my credit card paying for summer childcare. I'll get a bit more in tax credits during august but even so it's a big wodge to pay off. I should do some gumtree-ing shouldn't I.

Anyway, weather has picked up in hampshire. Can finally blitz my laundry pile. Rock and roll .

down did you get packed in the end? All planned ok?

Yep, we actually didn't have as much as I thought. Managed to fit in bikes and two crates of beer

Happy that the weather has picked up too. Makes it all look a bit more doable!

Is everybody getting sick and tired of people bragging on facebook about their children/nieces/nephews etc and their glowing school reports?

My ds had no such thing. He did not pass any of the very hard Sats KS2 this year it was a new syllabus and two of the three exams he very nearly passed (only 1 and 2 points out each one).

However his teacher has made no consideration or mention of this in his school report and has just written him off as being lacking in focus ...

Ds disagrees and so do I. He has always passed the standard in previous school years although he did start to struggle with maths from year 5.

I put a lot of comments on the signed sheet you have to hand in as I wasn't happy but know it won't make a jot of difference!

The head teacher also wrote quite a snotty message on his report too.

I am feeling quite cheesed off with them!

Anybody else or does everybody else have good achievers etc?