We went on holiday for a week and my son (19 mos) had his routine totally messed up. I’m not strict with it, he generally goes to bed at 7pm but it can be anything as late as 8.30pm occasionally. But on holiday it went to after midnight, he just wouldn’t sleep any earlier and I relaxed a bit as I wanted him to enjoy himself too and didn’t want to leave him crying in an unfamiliar room. But now I really do need to get him back to something like he was before – I work in the evenings (studying a degree from home, and some evenings I do bar work), and I can’t lose my degree or my job for my son’s sake, so I might have to be cruel to be kind. Last night I had work and I ended up having to let him cry himself to sleep with me listening through the monitor as I was an hour and a half late and would have lost my job if I’d been much later as they were understaffed. I felt awful but he was ok. (By the way I’m a single parent so nobody to share the workload – my dad is here with him when I go to work but only on the condition that he’s asleep and he doesn’t need to do anything). He fell asleep much quicker than I thought he would. Now, one side of me is telling me I should do that every night until he’s back to normal, because if I keep him up as late as he wants to be I’m just going to get nowhere and the quicker I nip it in the bud the easier it’ll be for him. But I feel dreadful. Does anybody have any advice? How did you solve the problem after holidays?

And please don’t give me the whole "You should care more about your child than getting personal time" crap. I do. Just understand that if I lose my degree, I can’t give my son a good future, and if I lose my job, I can’t support him right now.

I’m doing a research paper, and I need to find statistics like, what’s the percentage rate for both parents working nowadays? Or how many single parents are there? I cannot find a single webiste that has accurate information…could anyone please tell me where to go? PLEASE!!!!!

i had a women tall me thay my daugther is to importain to me cus i put her befor everyone else. so i told her to kick rocks.

I have a 16month old son who I am raising alone with the help of my parents due to abandonment by the father. For his own "up-bringing" reasons, age, and immaturity cannot handle this task. I have always felt an immense amount of pain knowing someday my son will ask for him, and i in return have nothing prepared to say. Anyway, i’m in nursing school and volunteered at an elementary clinic. As i looked through the contacts, i was surprised to see so many children with only the mother as contact, and sometimes even only a father. Half of these children lived in a single home, or with a step father, whom they now call dad. I was expecting to see depressed, sad, children. How affected are children by not having a father or mother ? Or dealing with a step-parent. I myself am fortunate to have both, but now i want to know what’s it like for those who were not raised with a father or mother. Did it make you stronger? insecure? How did your mother/father explain this to you as a child. thanks. i have been stressing so much and been depressed over this for so long, sometimes even blaming myself. But now i see that i am not alone!

This is long, but the background is important. I grew up the youngest of three and I came much later, so I was practically raised as an only child. My sister dropped out of high school her senior year and ran off with her bf (got married, had 2 kids, divorced, married again, divorced and now lives with and mooches off of me and my parents with no education or career). My brother made my parents pay three years of private tuition for him to become a pilot and then he dropped out (never repaid them, in fact went on to rob them blind of all their savings in a failed business attempt). I went to public school, got a full ride to college and graduated .. then got 2 master’s degrees. I started supporting my parents (and my sister who lives with them) when I was 22 and still in college and I still support them today by myself with no help from my brother or sister. I got married when I was 29 (im now 32) to my preschool-sweetheart … and I know for a fact that my siblings envied that.. but everyone loved him and so did I. We’re going through an emotionally horrific divorce right now where we’re both still very much in love with each other, but I can’t forgive him. The problem is that my brother and sister are now treating me like $hlt at the most vulnerable time in my life. When she left her husband, I was there and when he went to jail I was there. When her son had cancer, I was there (even though she wasn’t) and when his fiance cheated on him, I went to bat for him even though no one else did and they all took her side. This is the first time in my life that I have needed to know that they have my back if I need them … which I haven’t … but they criticize me, ridicule me and put the blame of my failed marriage on me. Why are they acting like that? I don’t understand why they can’t be supportive … growing up, my brother was the favorite and my sister did everything in her power to get attention … I pretty much was in the shadows and I was fine with it… I’ve been a loner since I was an infant and I love it… are they upset at me that for once the attention is on me? I can’t fathom why two people who have been so nice to me over the years have now turned on me … it’s not because they’re sorry he’s leaving, it’s like they’re gloating … I just need help trying to understand this. I’m trying to be rational and mature about this whole thing and I hate that for the first time in my life I’m feeling victimized … I have NEVER felt sorry for myself until now .. I guess what I’m trying to ask is, why are they treating me like this?