I’ve been asked why I point out that I am a single mom on my posts many times. And it’s intriguing to hear the thoughts that are provoked by my title. The most common one is the idea that being single and a mom denote a “dead beat” dad. It has also been seen as a way to look for a new prospective partner. Even though I can see and understand where these ideas come from, I thought it would be reasonable to take a moment to point out the actual reason I use the term single mom.
The focus of this term is just about me, as a formerly married woman, as a mom now raising two young women without a permanent partner by her side, a women dating and socializing without a partner. The truth is my life changed when I separated from the girl’s dad. I went from facing each parenting decision together with someone to only having to run the major decisions past him. He is still very present in their life, contributes guidance and monetary assistance to their growth, and has been a support system in our travels. We could not have done any of what we’ve done so far without his support and I consider myself very lucky for that. Other dad’s might have consider it more important for the kids to reside in the same zip code than to experience life the way we have. And others might find it unfair that mom and kids get to travel while they stay “home” and work. So we are blessed in this aspect. But ultimately, we travel alone.
I am a mom, who is not married and therefore single, and the girls and I have been traveling without a second parental unit. This does makes things different for us and has been a bit more difficult of an endeavor. The change in level of difficulty from a two parent home to a one parent home, is so significant that it may cause single parents to question traveling fulltime with their kids. So it’s so important for me to share my experience in hopes others can see that it is possible and manageable and amazing non-the-less. The lessons we have learned, the things we have experienced, and the amazing life we have been blessed to experience is something we will never forget, and we hope anyone that fantasizes about taking a similar journey gets the chance to.
