Scarifies

 

As parents and especially mothers we make sacrifices on a daily basis for our children and half the time they don’t even realize it.

As parents we feel our job is to protect our children at all costs even if it is at sacrifice of ourselves.

So what are the sacrifices that we as parents especially single parents make (some of which are from my own experience, some are from my mothers and others are from parents I know):

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• Our main focus is to keep the lights on and a roof over their heads. So that means that there are some bills that go unpaid and eventually go to collections. There are phones calls constantly that we ignore because we don’t have the money to pay everyone. Sure the credit gets ruined but we don’t care. When we have the money we will pay the bills that have gone unpaid for months. Do we care.? No. Why? Cause our children have a roof over their heads and the lights are on.

• ·        Going without.  There were times where I had just enough money to buy the necessary groceries and clothing for my daughter. I was a shop-a-holic all of my life, however; After my divorce and lack of child support payments I realized that designer clothing was not important. I realized that I could live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cereal. Why? Because my daughter needed to eat, I needed to pay daycare monthly and she needed clothes more than me. I did without and i don’t regret it. It thought me the value of the things that I have and thought me how to budget and I started using coupons and shopping clearance rack. Now I am a more thrifty shopper even when I don’t need to be.

• ·        Marriage. Of course I wanted to be married. Who really sets out to get married, spend all that money to turn around and get divorced? No one does! But as I will tell you as I tell everyone else. I got divorced because of my daughter. I wanted to be the mother that could have those honest conversations with he about life, the type of guy she should marry, etc. but if I wasn’t doing that in my own marriage and life then how could I tell her those things without being a hypocrite?

As parents we just want the best for our children at any costs. We will go above and beyond and not think twice. We will go without so that they can have. We will protect them at all costs. Why? Because we love them. Because they are our responsibilities. Because we promised we would protect me. Because we don’t want them to know the truth about what is going on as we want them to keep their innocence.