Ok here is my story ... a very abridged version of it. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I will answer them. There is so much more to coping as a single parent and I am sure that there were times I felt like I had done the wrong thing but I don't actually remember those times. What I do remember is being proud of myself for finishing Uni and being proud of the fact my kids were happy for the most part!!! I have to add that I never actually set out to find a new partner ... I was happy to have friends to spend time with (male & female) and when I joined an internet dating site, it was more to increase my circle of friends and if I happened to meet someone then that would be a bonus. Anyway, here is my story ... the short version LOL!!

I was a single Mum not so long ago and know the feelings of loneliness and need for adult conversation. I seperated from my XH in September 1999 when Emma was almost 4 and Jack was 14 months old. We left after counselling failed to help us sort through our problems and he disclosed that he had never really loved me. The night he told the counsellor that was the night I rang my Mum & Dad and told them I was leaving him!

I moved with the kids back to Adelaide and was lucky that I was already enrolled at Uni, studying for my teaching degree. I changed from being an external student to being an internal one and that helped me a lot. A lot of people ask me how I coped with 2 young kids and full time study and I have to say that I found it quite easy. The kids spent every second weekend with their Dad and had a huge amount of support from my Mum & Dad, emotionally more than anything else.

The feeling of loneliness never really goes away, you really do just learn how to deal with it. For me I used to spend a lot of time chatting in chat rooms online and made some great friends from it (as well as meeting my DH). I also had study to do which couldn't be put off and I would spend a lot of time doing me things ... taking a nice hot bath and reading a good book, once the kid were in bed.

I was lucky in that if I needed some help with baby sitting I had my parents but I used to make sure I went out on the weekends when the kids were with their Dad and sometimes I would stay home with a nice bottle of wine (Brown Brother's Crouchen & Reisling or Amberly Chenin Blanc are my recommendations ... not too expensive and a very nice drop LOL!!!) and chat to friends on line or I would hire a movie I had been dying to see but couldn't get to and watch it after I had a nice long hot bath and got into my PJ's.

I used to make sure it wasn't all about routines, while I had to have them for the mornings we also used to maek sure we had lots of spur of the moment times. Having fun was our way of making sure that we all stayed emotionally healthy! Fun for us was all of us cooking dinner together and then having a picnic in front of the TV for dinner ... not too exciting I know but my kids loved it. We also used to have take away once a week. It stretches the budget but the kids loved it and it made for an easy night for me. Pizza was our favourite because on Tuesday nights I used to be able to pick up a large pizza for $4 so we used to get 2 of them (to the point where I would walk in and the order would be written before I even got to the counter!!!)

Cheers