The rewards and challenges of being a single mother
Different single mothers tell their own stories about raising their child or children without a father who will accompany them.
The Challenges
“The society-induced “stigma” of being a single mom/parent… being one gives you this strange urge to make every moment count to fill the absence of the missing-in-action parent. Spontaneity became my middle name. I’d rouse Una at the crack of dawn to sneak off the beach and watch the sunrise, collect seashells and broken glass. We would hie off to the book sales splurge on cheap books, go to our favorite diner/fastfood outlet, and spend quiet afternoon reading while munching fries and nursing our coke floats. On the other days, we’d sit in our booth and make up stories about the people across us, or sketch the profiles on our sketch pads. I would make boring meals interesting by turning off all the lights, and we’d have candle-lit dinners while conversing with our fake British accents. We would read poetry to each other in the dark using our flashlights, sit on rooftops at sunset and wait for the first star, stay in our pajamas all day on lazy weekends doing movie marathons, drop everything and waltz around the kitchen floor to the Beatles’ Here, there and everywhere’, and name all our inanimate possessions. I filled her memory with countless rain dances, endless morning cuddling sessions, cereal fests and talking late into the night until we feel asleep in each other’s arms”.-Vicky Cayago, ageless credit analyst
The Rewards
“After getting over the society-induced “stigma” of being a single mom/parent, being one becomes a cinch. After a while, the neighborhood gossip becomes bearable. Una is 14 now, and watching her fight her own battles and come up stronger unscathed is reward enough for my effort at giving her a full life single handedly”-Vicky Cayago, mother to Una Aurea Cayago-Buendia, 14.
Sunday inquirer.
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