The pressure of providing for your kids as a single parent can sometimes be too much. Nonetheless, you can hack it with a bit of focus, strict financial management, self-care, and support from family and friends. Below are five ways to provide for your kids as a single parent.
1. Get Your Bucks in a Row
One of the areas you’ll have to call to order is your finances. Couples have the option to pool resources when raising their children. However, as a single parent, raising your kids is fully your responsibility. While this is a challenge, it’s not a bad thing.
Having complete control over the affairs of your children means you can make decisions with confidence. One of your critical objectives must be to become financially stable as soon as possible. Those birthdays and demands for gifts and treats will fall on you, and if you’re recently divorced with little or no support from the other parent, this will be a challenge initially.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Vital Statistics states that the state had 32,985 annulments and divorces in 2019. Thousands of other single parents like you do just fine raising kids independently. You will, too.
2. Take Care of Yourself
It’s challenging to provide for your kids if you don’t take care of yourself first. While it’s understandable to prioritize their needs and push yours to the back, don’t forget you also have needs. Set aside time for self-care. Occasionally, treat yourself to lunch, dinner, or a massage. Also, don’t self-isolate, as tempting as this may be.
Go out with friends and family to get your life back to as near-normal as possible. Raising kids shouldn’t be a reason to seclude yourself from the rest of humanity. You’ll need to be more focused now than at any other time, and providing for your child is challenging if you don’t care for yourself.
3. Manage Your Home
As a single parent, you’ll have to be more organized now than in the past. Everything about your home is your responsibility, from fixing a leaky faucet to dealing with more urgent issues such as a termite infestation, which affects about 600,000 homes yearly, according to Consumer Affairs. The key is to regularly inspect your home and fix simple repairs on time to avoid expensive emergencies down the road.
To provide for the kids, organize your home, and enforce schedule adherence. Cut off unnecessary tasks and habits that bleed you financially. Children function better in an organized home with established schedules and clearly defined tasks and responsibilities. Such a home is also less expensive to manage as nothing is swept under the carpet, only to emerge later as a money-guzzling emergency.
4. Get the Kids To Help Around
A little help from the kids is helpful in several ways. First, it’s a great way to teach them to be responsible and helpful in whatever environment they find themselves in. Second, it gives you time to take a breather in between tasks. You also get to bond with them.
Assign them age-appropriate chores such as putting out the laundry, tidying their bedroom, inserting dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and helping with dinner preparation, such as laying the table or washing the vegetables. As they help around, let them know they’re contributing significantly to the family. The joy on their faces will be infectious as children thrive in affirmations.
5. Observe Superior Health and Hygiene Practices
Nothing gulps a family’s resources than illnesses, especially if a child has a serious medical condition. The more than 30,000 prescription dispensaries in the United States, according to Envicare, point to the health challenges affecting most homes in the country. One can avoid most illnesses by observing superior hygiene standards in your home. Teach your kids basic hygiene practices; you’ll rarely have to visit your local prescription dispensary.
As a single parent, raising kids and managing your home is squarely on you. As such, you’ll need as much help as possible to keep the ship moving. Luckily, providing for kids alone can be an exciting journey if you look at the big picture. Children are special in many ways, and providing for them, even though challenging, is also fun. You can do it!