Raising Mommy is the inspiration behind the real life joys and struggles the I have faced navigating a challenging full time career while simultaneously juggling the responsibilities of being a single parent to a strong willed, independent daughter.

While sharing yet another story involving the role reversal of daughter parenting mother, my friend Michelle declared, “Chapter 6 of Raising Mommy”…and so it began…

I am a single mother by choice - which means that I chose to have a child on my own and to be the sole caregiver to my child. When I turned 40, I realized that my chances of conceiving a child were diminishing by the minute. I decided that I was tired of waiting for the man in my life to LET ME know when it was the right time FOR HIM FOR ME to have a baby. I was ready to have a baby and he was NOT and it occurred to me that I wanted to be a mommy more than I wanted to be his girlfriend. So I made the choice to have a baby on my own. That was the smartest and most important decision of my life.

The road to becoming a parent was a very long, frustrating, heart wrenching, and joyful journey that led to the most important and rewarding phase of my life. Since then, I have been approached by countless people who have asked if I could speak with their friend, sister, or daughter who is contemplating single parenthood about my experience as a single mom. Right now I only personally know 2 other women with a similar story, but something tells me that the “single mother by choice” is going to be much more common in years to come. I am hopeful that my blog will reach someone currently contemplating single parenthood to help them make the right decision for their future.

My daughter is now 9 years old. What I have learned in this time is that single motherhood is not nearly as difficult as I feared. It is exhausting, for sure. I am exhausted nearly every single day. But I am also happy. Truly happy every single day. I shudder at the thought of how close I was to deciding not to have a baby on my own, or when I almost gave up trying to conceive. My life is so much richer, so much more meaningful because of my daughter and I am forever thankful that I made the choice to have her. Though knowing how strong willed and determined she is, I believe that it is she who made the choice to come into my world. Would it be easier if I had someone to share the parenting responsibility with me? Yes, of course. But I have also discovered that I am much happier than some of my friends who are unhappily married-with children. Something I don’t have in my life is stress from an unhappy marriage. There are pros and cons of dual parenting vs. single parenting, and obviously to be happily married with children is the ideal scenario, but if that is not an option, single parenthood is pretty dang awesome in my book (blog).