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Lone parents

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Balancing young children, a job and chronic health condition?

3 replies

Ruffllefluffle · 26/02/2021 16:57

I am preparing to leave my partner. We have 2 children under 7 and I am currently working part-time, looking to increase to almost FT to support us. I plan on selling the family home and buying a smaller home for myself and DCs. Their father is mostly hands-on and we will have a rough split of 4/3 but they will only stay with him over night 1-2 nights per week. We have loosely agreed this arrangement.

I am however troubled as to how I will manage working more, whilst being a single mum with an autoimmune condition which wipes me out every 2-3 weeks for 2 days? I become bed bound during this time. I also fatigue easily inbetween these times.

I have been very unhappy for a long time and my partner is a huge cause of stress for me as he's passive aggressive, stubborn and very cold and insensitive. I'm not sure if I'm naive to hope that on separation, I'll feel better in terms of health and manage fine on my own?

Or is being a single parent going to completely drain me? I don't have family around me to help when my health dips so I would have to call on my ex and I'm not sure whether I really want to have to rely on him, he appears to already resent me when my health flares inconvenience him.

Also, one of my children is extremely extrovert- loud and outgoing, overly chatty, definitely borderline ADHD. I am often absolutely drained when I am caring for her for long periods and when I can feel myself declining as a result of her high energy, I become highly anxious and snappy. I manage to be a fairly good Mum as it stands, with lots of experiences for the children, plenty of exercise. But this is with another parent on hand to help with the practicalities.

I'm worried I'll be a rubbish, washed out Mum on my own. Or will leaving him give me more energy for it?

Any advice?

OP posts:
BlackeyedSusan · 27/02/2021 00:38

Oh dear that sounds tricky. I only managed two out of three of those. Thankfully ex is not a twat with money.

Cut back as much as you can. Work as little as you can manage on. As they grow they get easier

I don't think it is sustainable to work a lot more, though he may be taking more energy than you know.

BlackeyedSusan · 27/02/2021 00:39

You don't want to risk having to take lots of time off due to illness as that is not good for you.

ilovesouthlondon · 05/03/2021 19:18

I would say you would probably benefit from making friends with other local mums. Check out gingerbread. You are very brave a strong x

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