Single Parenting: Stress is Part of the Equation
Single Parenting: Stress is Part of the Equation
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Stress! It seems to get worse and worse. How many of us have suddenly found ourselves single parents with double the work and more responsibilities. It may not have happened suddenly, but nonetheless you are in that situation. This is almost a sure prescription for stress. It comes from having to go to work then come home to the children. It can also come from not having enough money because your salary is normally not the same as that of two people working.
Being a single parent is not easy. It’s like doing two jobs at once. Single parenting requires you to be an understanding mother or a tough and providing father all at the same time. Stress and single parenting, therefore, work together, giving a single mom and dad their fair share of headaches practically every day.
Stress and single parenting are the usual topics in self-help books on parenting. Psychologists believe that raising children and even just a single child is a very stressful task that requires ample management of emotional, behavioral and spiritual aspects of the single parent. A single parent could easily deteriorate emotionally due to stress and strain of the role of being both a mother and father. As you can guess that is not a very easy task and it is also very time consuming.
So how do you manage stress and single parenting? Psychologists say that in order for a parent to manage both stress and single parenting, he or she should list things that cause him or her stress. Knowing the problems are the first steps to solving them.
The universal stressors in single parenting for a female parent is how she could manage her household while she works her way to earn a living for 9 to 11 hours during the day. Self-help books on how to manage stress and single parenting give single moms some advice on this.
Firstly, if their job requires them to be out of the house during office hours, she could hire a baby sitter during the times she is at work. But if she wants to have some quality time with her child or children, it would be better if she could leave her day job and create a work from home business or job. If possible, that would help reduce stress.
This is not necessarily easy to find or do, but with a lot of searching and some good luck they may be able to find a good part-time or full time work at home position. They could possibly start their own online business, but that is more complicated and not for everyone. It has been getting somewhat easier as time goes by to find work-at-home opportunities due to more and work-at-home positions being available, many because of or using the Internet.
The internet is no longer here to merely entertain us. In fact, billions of dollars worth of business deals have been transacted through the Internet. The numbers just keeps getting bigger and much greater sales are predicted from the Internet over the next few years. There are many people, including single parents, who earn a living through the internet selling goods and services. If you are a fast typist, you can offer typing services through ‘telecommuting.’ It is a secretarial job that doesn’t require a single parent to be ‘on-site’ or at the place where the office is located.
Some employers, especially those who are always on the go, hire a ‘virtual assistant’ to help them with clerical or typing or secretarial jobs. Employers simply email the typing or research job to their virtual assistant with the instructions on how to do it and when to submit it, and the virtual assistant sends the employer the typing and research job at the time the employer has specified.
The virtual assistant will be paid online via PayPal or Online Checks, every 15th and 30th of the month, or as agreed by both parties. There are virtual assistants that do other jobs related to Internet marketing. Some companies or individuals hire virtual assistants to answer their telephones. If you can do graphics or any specialty using the computer that is used in marketing there may be a virtual assistant job for that specialty.
I just received an email from an internet marketer looking for someone part-time who knows how to record videos of Internet browser screens and use some common video creation software to help produce video tutorials for his products. Such opportunities may be getting more frequent.
If you can find a job working from home you can manage both stress and single parenting because you will have an income and more time to spend with your child. Even if your children are screaming at each other, you can usually pacify them while waiting for the next job that your virtual boss will give you. You could also be a virtual assistant for more than company if you were doing both part-time. Working online or telecommuting is one of the best ways that you can manage stress and single parenting.
As for single dads, the problem that they usually face is how to keep in-tune with their child or children’s feelings and emotional needs. This is the most usual cause of stress with a male single parent.
Unlike a single mom, not all single dads want to work at home. Many feel that this is not a very manly job. To psychologists, however, single dads don’t have much freedom to think this way. They may have to take what they can get in order to be home or spend more time with their children.
Single parenting is totally different from regular parenting (a household with a mother and a father). A single parent must adjust to the usual activities expected of a ‘regular’ parent. So, a single dad must accept the fact that he can’t be just like ‘any other dad’. His work schedule is like most moms, from sunrise until late evening. A single dad needs to be at the side of his children, just like a mother. If he can’t accept this fact, he will usually have a difficult time managing stress and single parenting duties.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:26 am
[...] new article “Single Parenting: Stress is Part of the Equation” has been added to the Self Help Tactics [...]
September 18th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[...] new article Single Parenting: Stress is Part of the Equationhas been added to the Self Help Tactics [...]
September 13th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Sounds like a book report written by a 16-year-old. You have no clue.