Loneliness

[Belle89]

How do other single parents deal with loneliness.?
I work so am out during the day but find evenings hard and weekend in the evenings especially when child is with their dad and I'm home alone.

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It's not easy
I would love having time to myself more than the 30mins in the evening between DCs bedtime and mine.
Get out there meet people, why not try Meetup.com there are such veried interest groups, your bound to find a few that you fancy. Also look at ones where you can try things you haven't done before.

It's what I'll be doing once finances are sorted so I can afford a child minder once in a while.

Belle I also find the times when I'm alone hard sometimes, especially Friday and Saturday nights when the kids are at their dad's. I try to organise things but that isn't always easy. I have been doing some studying which is a good distraction, is there anything you would like to learn more about?

Annette it's really annoying when people say get out there and meet people. If you had 48hrs every fortnight on your own you might find its not as easy as all that.

I got a second job. My older dc went to their dads every weekend.

I tried to make a good social life for myself too.

Now with my younger dc their dad rarely has them. No over night stays so im exhausted & still lonely!

I'm a lone parent. No other parent other than myself. It is difficult not having someone to talk with about the everyday life stuff. I talk to myself.

When DS is at respite I'm lonlier. Going to meet up groups, gym, swimming etc is good but still nobody to chat to of everyday life.

It's hard. I basically MN and watch TV.

I have the dc 24/7 so no social life since my family moved away. Tbh I've kind of accepted it as a lost decade when it comes to a social life .

My only glimmers of hope in the long term are parkrun and my allotment. Lots of little chances to make friends and chat, and I'll have more opportunities when my kids are older.

If you ask me you are better off just befriending fellow single parents so they understand our situation better. I have found it largely a waste of time to get to know women who live with partners they make little or no time for you plus barely understand anything. Sorry if that sounds harsh.

Also if you go to meet up groups most people there will have plenty of freedom to get out and mix and also wont' understand our situation. It doesn't mean that it isn't a good idea though.

When ds is 14 in two more years I will go to meet up groups here and there. I would rather wait for now and just keep going to my Buddhist meetings and later in the year join zumba. I had planned to go to zumba from Jan but it is hard to motivate in winter. I have a sore knee at the moment and my mattress needs replacing so once those issues are resolved I will join.

Hello. New here. I'm a single parent of three and feel frustrated by not being part of the rest of the world nor being understood. People don't want to know. I have no family support. My children are a bit older now so I can go out to yoga and the eldest look after the youngest 10 year old. Finances and time and energy levels doesn't allow much more than that. Most of the time I am spending my energy making home a good place to be and devoting my time with my children because they need me. I also find creative things to do at home but need confidence to put myself out there. I am sure there are many more women like me so I joined here to find you and chat. You are right the weekends are harder. Only 2 of mine visit their dad so I don't get a break. My children are wonderful - it's just everyone needs to find joy and happiness and we deserve that too. The hardest part of all this is that i have had a relationship since the divorce but it isn't easy...back to doing someone else's washing just had added to my workload and taken time away from things I felt I needed to do for me. And I was still being both parents. Lovely to be here.

It's not easy. Especially when your kids are small. Make an effort to get out as much as you can at weekends and keep busy. When my kids were young I made a lot of friends through my kids and activities. Having a dog really helps too as it gets you out the house and you always bump into someone who's up for a chat!

Best advice I can give is to stay off social media when you're feeling low, as it can make you feel like everyone else on the world is having a great time apart from you!

Hi all,

Just to say I am in this position too. One of my DCs won't see father so I get no break at all.

Money is a problem, old friends are drifting away/married/don't understand. I also feel they don't have a clue - I had one 'window' of an evening off, unexpectedly as DC went to Grandmothers, nobody was free to meet up anyway.

I do worry that I am isolating myself, but I don't really have an option, I juggle work, school pick ups, shopping, cleaning etc, and I'm just so exhausted most of the time I just get on with it anyway.

It's bloody hard. Especially with an Ex who is determined to make life as difficult as possible. I sometimes wonder what the point is. My DCs see me stressed out, worn out, I'm snappy with them and generally life is pretty shit!

for you, even though you're alone, you're not if you know what I mean!