Jessie, my Great Dane puppy, had surgery on Saturday
morning, and I was a ball of nerves about it. I'd rather get a root canal than
have her go under general anesthesia. While she was in the vet's office, I
figured I would keep busy by pricing granite for new kitchen countertops,
measuring and pricing new hardwood floors, and cleaning the pool for the start
of summer. That's when the wheels came off. My brand new pool pump had stopped
working.
Spent all morning scouring pool supply companies for
information and prices for the repair. After getting quotes up to $1000 for “probable”
pool repairs (based on symptoms I relayed), I decided to see if I could fix it
myself (I'm pretty handy with tools.) I found the problem—broken PVC pipe coming
from the pool into the pump. I fixed it for 99 cents thanks to one nice/honest
pool sales clerk who told me the pipe didn't require a permanent repair, only a
special tape designed for this problem. The roll of tape cost just under a buck
and worked perfectly.
That done, I went shopping for the granite, wood flooring,
and food for the week before picking up Jessie. None of these things by
themselves were a big deal (except for Jessie's health), but the stress left me
exhausted. Today, I cleaned house, mowed lawns, did the laundry, cooked food
for later this week and took Jessie to her obedience school lessons.
All of this leads to one inescapable conclusion: single mothers are super-women. I ran my butt
off for three days and ended up falling asleep on the couch at 6PM with
Jessie's head in my lap. I don't know how single moms (or dads) run like this
day after day, week after week, for years on end. My hat is off to all of you.
It is definitely easier with a family structure of a father and mother participating in the raising of children, even if it seems like tag team wrestling, one parent tagging out for the other to step into the ring.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, a parental team isn't always possible, and in some ways not becoming the norm, making it more difficult and stress-filled both on the single parent and child or children. With the mobility of our culture, one cannot even count on a grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle or older cousin to be there in a pinch.
All this goes back to, you're right, Dean.
Terry, you know that old expression about walking a mile in another person's shoes to understand his or her perspective, well I only walked three days in a single mom's shoes and just about collapsed...LOL.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts, Dean.