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Single Parenting Advice For Flourishing In Difficult Situations

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All single parents have those days when they wonder if life will ever get easier. They wonder how they can overcome the myriad of obstacles they must jump over just to survive on a day-to-day basis. Instead of waiting for the inevitable emergency, take some single parenting advice and learn to prepare the foundation so those days become fewer and far between.

Your Little Black Book

Bachelors have them. You should too if you want to follow some good single parenting advice. This is not about your dating, life. This is about the caregivers, neighbors, teachers, friends, basically anyone who can lend a helping hand when times get tough. In this day and age when almost everyone has a cell phone, your network of people should be available in a pinch. To do this, you need to take down names and numbers and add them to your cell phone address book.

At home, this information should even list the insurance policy providers and account numbers and all information on co-payments and claims as well as receipts of payments. This not only helps to locate random baby-sitters but also should help you keep track of expenses during the year and at the end when it comes to tax time. To be organized when you are a single parent is the best single parenting advice one can take.

The Ever-Present Schedule

One of the most frustrating things about single parenting, particularly if there is an ex-spouse involved, is the custody schedule. It can drive divorced people to insanity trying to determine who has the minor children and when. Since many single parents are working, a slip-up in the custody schedule can result in loss of time at work, an almost inexcusable fault these days. A late pick-up or missed pick-up or drop-off can also result in tardiness or having to leave the office early. How do we keep these interruptions from affecting our work performance? It's imperative that any single parenting advice include mention of the custody schedule, a device which should be described in great detail in any separation or divorce agreement prior to your first pick-up or drop-off.

Things to decide in the custody schedule are the drop-off and pick-up times and place. In addition, all holidays, birthdays and Mother's and Father's day need to be outlined in detail along with drop-off and pick-up times. Should emergencies arise in the school, it's important the school is aware of both parent's emergency contact information and the parent whose custody time it is should take care of the emergency arrangements while notifying the other.

Don't Skimp On Meals

No matter what age your children are, they're always hungry. Whether they're crying for a bottle or asking what's for dinner, they always seem to be looking for something to eat. And have you ever noticed that when you're hungry, your mood gets worse? It's the same with kids. It may be tempting to skip meals here and there to get more time, or eat junk food on the run, but it doesn't work. Eventually, these poor diet habits come back to bite you in the butt and the family becomes isolated scroungers instead of cooperative homebuilders.

Take some single parenting advice and learn to sit down for your main meal at night, where you can hear what's really going on in your kid's lives. If you're too tired to cook, there are many different healthy prepared options available in the grocers now ranging from cooked roasted chickens to pre-made salads. Have the kids help with loading the dishwasher or fixing the food, if they're not too young. This type of family time is not only healthy it can also deepen connections and instill good work ethics in your own children. These connections will pay dividends when the real difficult issues crop up by having established an open communication with your kids in a comfortable environment prior to needing it.