Ode to the Single Mother

"I'm just so embarrassed, " she told me, her eyes welling up with tears. "You shouldn't be embarrased, you're beautiful, and you are going to have a beautiful baby girl," I told her. As if pregnancy wasn't hard enough, my heart went out to her. I know in this moment my friend was feeling the "Oh, so the dad isn't in the picture, huh?" comments. She was feeling all the pitty stares from the pretencious woman who claimed to have perfect lives and flawless husbands.



I began to think what it would be like to be pregnant without a husband and how I would dread being asked "Where is the father?" As a married woman I felt so alone when I was pregnant, I can't imagine what it would be like to stare down at your belly and feel abandonement radiating from with in. To feel the weight of responsibility and know you would be carrying it in solitude.


I looked at my friend and felt guilty for all the times I had complained about how hard it was being pregnant and how hard it was to have a baby. The truth is a married woman can learn a few things from the single mother. If I was single there would be no breaks, no hold him wile I pee, watch him while I shower, no can you put him to bed tonight I am tierd. I would be the only influence in my child's life. I would not only be a parent, I would be two.

I realized single mothers don't know their own stregnth. They are women who were often delt an unforseen circumstance and are making a choice to bring life into this world. So I told my friend what my mother told me when I was having one of those rough pregnant days. "Don't worry, once you have this baby, you'll never be alone......in this life, you'll never be alone again."