Whether by choice or by chance there are millions of single parents in America who are struggling to make it through every day. Not only are they struggling financially, but emotionally too. For many of them, making it through each day without having a nervous breakdown is a miracle.

As every parent knows, raising children is a thankless job. It� �s even worse when you� �re doing it alone. Single parenting is a very lonesome job accompanied by impossible demands. There are no breaks or vacations. You are on-call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There is no freedom to be spontaneous and everything you do affects your kids in one way or another. No one else is there to help make decisions or to take part in caring for the children� �s everyday needs. There is no one there to reassure you when you are on the verge of tears or to help with the financial strain. Raising kids is not cheap. You learn real quick how to budget what little money you have and become skilled stealing from Peter to pay Paul.

Single parents frequently get depressed, frustrated, lonely, and irritable. Often feeling like a zombie going day to day with no life inside them. Feeling that life has too many impossible demands as well as a lack of personal fulfillment leaves you burnt out and depressed. There is just too much pressure to do everything and to do it well all by yourself.

Family and friends may try to understand but no one can truly know what a single parent goes through. They don� �t know what it� �s like to have endless nights of crying because there is no money for Christmas or the feeling of failure because they can� �t afford to turn the heat up on a cold winter� �s night. They don� �t understand the humiliation felt when groceries have to come from a food pantry or have to constantly accept being the bad guy because they have to tell their children, no because theres no extra money in the budget for extra activities.