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Ep. 54: Being a single mother of teenagers
344 Plays2 years ago
The world is set up for dual parent families, says today's podcast guest author Sarah Thompson, who discovered all sorts of hurdles were placed in her way when she became a single mother.
However, there is a silver lining, and Sarah has written a compelling book about everything she thinks her children have benefited from since their parents' separation.
Listen to the podcast to find out why solo parenting can work out well even when you have teenagers.
Here are some of the ways Sarah says her kids have benefitted from being raised by a single mother:
- Resilience
- Emotional maturity
- Organisation
- Independence
Listen to the podcast to find out how Sarah's teenagers have benefitted from their parents' separation.
Sarah and I compare notes on the things that go wrong in our houses (think lost keys, crisps for dinner, and security issues) and agree that they're the same in all busy families - single parent or otherwise!
We talk about allowing our kids to fail sometimes, and how they learn life lessons from that.
Advice for single parents of teenagers
Sarah's gives her best advice on how to cope when you become a single parent, including getting in touch with the charity Gingerbread.
She says single motherhood is also a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with your female friends on a different level, as well as gaining new friendships.
Who is Sarah Thompson?
Sarah Thompson is a Sunday Times bestselling author and journalist. Sarah's features, on subjects ranging from parenting and divorce to sex, mental health and female friendship, have appeared in numerous publications including the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian and the Daily Mail. She's also written books about the perils of modern motherhood (You're So Mummy, published by Michael Joseph). Sarah is the (single) mother of two children and lives in Bridport, Dorset.
Happy Single Mother is available in most bookstores and on Amazon (Affiliate link).
More teenage parenting tips from Helen Wills:
Helen wills is a teen mental health podcaster and blogger at Actually Mummy a resource for midlife parents of teens.
Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear new episodes. If you have a suggestion for the podcast please email [email protected].
There are already stories from fabulous guests about difficult things that happened to them as teenagers - including losing a parent, becoming a young carer, and being hospitalised with mental health problems - and how they overcame things to move on with their lives.
You can find more from Helen Wills on parenting teenagers on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.
For information on your data privacy please visit Podcast.co.
Please note that Helen Wills is not a medical expert, and nothing
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Transcript
Introduction to Teenage Kicks Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Teenage Kicks podcast where we take the fear out of parenting or becoming a teenager. I'm Helen Wills and every week I talk to someone who had a difficult time in the teenage years but came out the other side in a good place and has insight to offer to parents and young people who might be going through the same.
Meet Sarah Thompson & Her Book
00:00:37
Speaker
Today's guest Sarah Thompson is a single mum of two teenagers and a Sunday Times bestselling author and journalist. Her book Happy Single Mother is as entertaining as it is factual and as refreshing as it is brutally honest.
00:00:53
Speaker
Not just a good read, I couldn't put it down and I'm not a single mum. Happy Single Mother is a handbook to how you're going to feel what you're going to need to do and how your kids will not only survive but quite possibly be all the better for the change. And yes, that does include teenagers.
00:01:17
Speaker
Sarah, welcome to the podcast. It's so good to have you here and I'm really excited to talk about single parenting because I've read the book and there was so much that I hadn't thought of in
Financial & Systemic Challenges
00:01:31
Speaker
there. Oh really, well that's lovely. Well thank you very much for having me. I'm very excited to be here and I'd love to know what you read that you hadn't thought of.
00:01:40
Speaker
Well, I don't know if it's just me being just in case, but I've just read the finance chapter last night. Oh, my God, what a nightmare of wading through. It is. Yeah. Because you're right. It's not if you are a nuclear family and then you become a single parent, it's
00:02:02
Speaker
Nothing's there to catch you. You realize that everything is set up to run on a two parent model basically. As soon as you're not, then
00:02:15
Speaker
And yeah, I don't know if you read a bit about the council tax, you know, they give you a discount and at first you think, oh yeah, that's great. And then you kind of think it through and think, oh actually, I'm now actually paying 75%. Whereas before I was only paying 50%. And you start to see everything through this lens of like, oh my, you know, the whole world is basically set up for dual income situations. Yeah, including, I hadn't even thought about it, but days out, family of four, cinema trips, family of four. Yeah, yeah. And just, and
00:02:43
Speaker
you know going out for dinner and things like that and just kind of it's really hard sometimes to book a table for three instead of two and all sorts of things are made more difficult but you know there's very much a silver lining and that's hopefully what the book is about. Absolutely yeah so you start the book with quite a lot of single parents are much maligned and single mothers specifically in terms of the media hype
00:03:12
Speaker
How does that, how did that feel for you and were you aware of it before you actually became a single mum?
Personal Stories & Media Portrayal
00:03:20
Speaker
I suppose, I think what I realised is that I had such mixed up and conflicting ideas about it all because I've kind of grown up in the story of a divorce. I've got a half sister and my mum was married to someone else beforehand, you know, and it was all quite genial and everyone was very friendly. So it sort of never really
00:03:39
Speaker
was a thing in my mind that it would be a problem, or that people would see me a different way, you know, because I had a lovely family, and no one saw us that way, kind of thing. And yet, on the other hand, I remember thinking, who have I seen, you know, on telly, who are the single mother role models, and it was kind of Mary from EastEnders, I don't know if you remember that. She was part of the original cast, you know, and she was a junkie, and she couldn't read, and she wanted us to shoot, and it's like, oh, okay, so that's,
00:04:05
Speaker
that's what everyone else thinks a single woman is. And then, yeah, just doing a little bit of digging and looking at some of the headlines. And you did just begin to realize that the words single mother are used to imply something far more than, you know, if people write a story about a man, I mean, they just say a man most of the time, they don't say a father or a single father. But where there's a woman, where there's a
00:04:30
Speaker
you know, it could be a mother or it could be the wife of so and so or it's a single mother, you know, and I put out some headlines in the book that she probably read, you know, single mother killed son with bleach, single mother slept with Lord's neither, single mother, you know, were just demonized, basically, whereas
00:04:46
Speaker
single fathers are always kind of, look at this cute single dad of his kids. Isn't he amazing? You know, because he once looked after his child or something. Yeah, you can get that now even so that they still see a dad out with a toddler and it's like, oh, you're giving mum a day off then. Not just being a dad. No, exactly. Aren't you amazing? Yeah.
00:05:09
Speaker
Yeah, so I think I realised I had very conflicting views and that was part of the problem of it all for me and that's sort of eventually why I decided to write the book because I wanted to kind of try and best some of those negative assumptions that people seem to make.
00:05:23
Speaker
Yeah, so, and you do actually, and really, really well. There's so much information and stats in there and it really made me stop and think about some of those issues that I hadn't actually thought of because I've never contemplated it. I've never had to, luckily. But yeah, one of the things that really struck me, and I promise we're going to get onto all the positives of being a single parent shortly, but one of the things that really struck me was how
00:05:53
Speaker
other people's views have you shifted when you became a single mum? Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, well, again, it's sort of all mixed up and quite subtle, I think, you know, just odd comments, a very, very good friend.
00:06:12
Speaker
said you know are you sure you want to do this because you'll you'll be a 40 year old woman on your own you know and so all right Mr Daily Male okay um and uh definitely a teacher at school a male teacher really I made me cry actually you know saying how damaging it was going to be for children and that you know children need
00:06:38
Speaker
consistency and you know you just plant them like seeds and you let them grow and you know and it was very difficult for the school admin team when when parents separate and you think oh actually is it just that it's very convenient for your school admin. Yeah so I hadn't thought about that but you said in there that somebody had said oh yeah I know it gets difficult because then we have to keep two parents informed about their child not just one. Yeah exactly okay I'll stay married then.
00:07:07
Speaker
And even, you know, close family, my mum, I've said in the book, and, you know, I'm my mum's biggest fan, so I'm not having a go at her, but her first comment was, you know, who's going to want you with two children? And you think, has anyone said that to my ex? I doubt that very much, you think? Yeah. Yeah. So it's, but I just think it's one of these things that we all, you know, how you just come onto the positive, it's almost like you just assume that it's a negative, we just fed it from, from
00:07:35
Speaker
from the get go so that actually you never stop to think that it might not be negative, you know, that actually maybe everyone people are fine when they're single. So that's, yeah, it's so pervasive, if that's the right word. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, and okay, so, um,
00:07:54
Speaker
this teacher and various people have told and lots of media headlines have told you that it's all going to be downhill and your kids are going to suffer and you've got some interesting stats on that in terms of research that's been done.
Child Outcomes & Research Insights
00:08:07
Speaker
Let's switch it to the positive and tell me how, because I know that you don't believe it has been detrimental to them and so tell me about some of the ways that actually maybe it's even better. Yeah.
00:08:23
Speaker
I mean, the first thing I would say is that the research into the positives of being raised by a single family hardly exists. All the research when you want to know about being raised by a single parent is about the absence of negatives, if that makes sense. So it's about what happens if you don't live with two parents. Very few people, and I talked to Susan Golombok, who's a researcher at Cambridge and professor and super clever lady.
00:08:53
Speaker
very few people actually look into, you know, I wanted to find out about resilience in the children of single parents, because that's such a big buzzword in child development at the moment. And it's something that I think both my kids have had to develop, you know, that kind of living between two families and understanding that things don't always go to plan and, you know, develop, you know, just being okay with change and things like that.
00:09:21
Speaker
There just isn't anything out there at the moment that is about the positives, it's just about the absence of negatives, or at least if there is, I haven't found it yet. Wow. And you've done a lot of research I can tell from the book. I feel like I have, yeah. It's just not there. Yeah, at all. I mean, if it is there, it just doesn't get shouted about, you know, there was a big research programme from the University of Sheffield, which covered, I can't, there's something like 20,000 families, I can't remember the number, you know, it was a decent, solid piece of research that looked at
00:09:51
Speaker
what they depressingly call outcomes, you know, children of mental health and their career and their earnings and all those kind of things that concern us. And they're all they're all absolutely fine. You know, they're no different to the right to the outcomes of children in dual parent families. And in fact, sometimes, you know, children in dual parent families have a worse time of it because they're living with parents who are feuding or
00:10:18
Speaker
in the presence of a difficult relationship. There's nothing really out there about that either, but what you realise is that these stories about everything being fine just don't make good headlines. No, they're not fun are they? No, exactly.
00:10:37
Speaker
There's no danger in that headline. No, it's more fun to call someone apart than it is to talk about the news as such a shame, isn't it? And actually on that, some of what you pointed out was that most of the research has found that poor outcomes are associated not with the type of family you're in, but with income, poverty, class. Yes, and with conflict in the home, you know, living under that strain of
00:11:04
Speaker
of a feuding couple. I was fascinated though, because she said poorer single parents fell into that bracket as well. There was no difference between
00:11:20
Speaker
poor single parents and poor, sorry, low income single parents and low income dual parents. So it's definitely poverty, not single parent status. No, however, single parents who are more likely to be women are more likely to find themselves in poverty because they shoulder the childcare burden.
00:11:42
Speaker
and therefore they need more part-time work. It's just a horrible feedback loop. Yeah, so we've segwayed back into the negatives and I want to go back to the positive ones. You talked about resilience and that's something that gets talked about in school. I remember it from
00:12:03
Speaker
gosh, how long have my kids been at school now? 12, 13 years. So it's been around for a long time, this buzzword of resilience. And actually, I fully subscribe to it. And I don't know any parents that don't. And you can see that when children go through hardship, although as parents, we hate it, and it's awful for us. And it's tough for them. If we can support them to come out the other side, they and this is what this podcast is all about.
00:12:27
Speaker
they they end up in a better place because they're more able to cope. Have you seen signs of that in your own kids? Yeah, definitely. I think that I think my children are I mean, obviously, everyone thinks their children are amazing, aren't they? So I don't understand. I don't understand. I'll go for it. I think that they are emotionally very mature and wise and are able to see the full round picture of a situation.
00:12:57
Speaker
I think I've talked to a brilliant child psychologist, Joanna Fortune, about the different ways that she observes children of single parents playing or interacting with people, as opposed to children from dual parent households. And she also thinks that there's a more collaborative approach in the household, which I really agree with.
00:13:26
Speaker
I've had to just go, I need you to unload that dishwasher.
Fostering Independence in Children
00:13:31
Speaker
It's not negotiable that, you know, otherwise we're not going to, tea's not going to be made, or you have to do this. Whereas I think perhaps before I was a bit more, dinner's going to be ready at six o'clock. Just kind of make sure you're here. Whereas now I really do need them to muck in.
00:13:50
Speaker
to keep us all, to keep the house from not just collapsing under. So I think that they've learnt to be a bit more, they've seen, they realise that when they don't help, everything mounts up, you know, the jobs mount up and you know, my son's got a job, he goes out and does, he works in a restaurant and I'm really proud of him for doing that as well, you know, and he's, I mean, I know,
00:14:15
Speaker
I know that the children in dual parent households have all these lovely things as well. It's just that I feel like no one ever expects them to fail or no one's going.
00:14:25
Speaker
how are the children concerned? You know, you feel like you have to kind of shout about it almost a little bit more. Well, I'm going to say that that need to get them more involved in the housework and the responsibilities around the household is a massive positive because this is me and I suspect I'm not the only one. I
00:14:47
Speaker
struggle, and I'm not a pushover as a parent, I'm quite strong with my kids and they know the rules and the boundaries, but now that they're teenagers, I struggle to put my foot down around chores and housework and because they hate it so much,
00:15:05
Speaker
I wouldn't say it's the majority of the time, but there are frequently times when I go, do you know what? It's just easier if I do it myself. It's quite often get a lot of mouth bad. It's just not worth it. It just pisses them off. My daughter especially, she's doing A levels. I don't know if this is all
00:15:24
Speaker
true, but she tells me that her life is a complete nightmare. And obviously, and I can see it, I can see the work she's doing. I don't want to add to her stress. So I just go, I'll unload the dishwasher. Yeah, no, I know. I know. I'm not pretending for a minute that I am running this amazing teamwork situation at all.
00:15:43
Speaker
I think perhaps just things get a little bit more out of hand in our houses because there's only three of us. Yeah but clearly they can see that and I'm thinking that when they do leave home and go to university they're going to be not one of the least, well not one of the most annoying housemates. No I hope not, I hope they're gonna, yeah I think there's some but you know I think
00:16:04
Speaker
They've developed quite a lot of independence and having to keep their stuff organized and know who's house they're going to and what they need for the next day and all that kind of stuff. Again, they don't get right and nor do we all the time, but at least it's kind of
00:16:19
Speaker
it's there in their heads, you know. Yeah, I was going to ask how that how that works, actually, because I know I've got a couple of friends who are in that sort of situation and the kids go backwards and forwards across the week. Yeah.
Practical Co-Parenting Advice
00:16:33
Speaker
And yeah, have you got any any top tips for those parents who are struggling with that? Like yours is always where are your shin pads, but it represents homework and shoes and party dresses. Yeah, yeah. I think the
00:16:49
Speaker
The biggest thing for me as a mum was to stop providing the service for their dad, you know, to stop sending them there with a bag full of clean clothes and toothbrush and, you know, trying to think of everything even while they're not in my... Okay, yeah. And that is really tough sometimes because you want to, but actually I've had to let that go because, you know, you do just have to kind of compartmentalize and go, that is their problem to sort out.
00:17:20
Speaker
on those days. I can imagine that's really tough. I don't want to pry, but you can tell me the answer to this or not. But has he then stepped up or have they just learned to cope better? It is really hard. And this is where the finances come back in to sort of divide the week that your children's lives up into sections, you know, you can't just go, okay, well, I've just said that's what you've got to do. But you know, that's what I mean. That's what the challenge is. In lots of ways, how would you know
00:17:48
Speaker
what they've got to wear on Tuesday or Thursday, but then you're like, well, why don't you find out? And then it's just, it's, yeah. So, not always, but sometimes. It's messy. To be fair, life's messy for us and we all live in the same house, but it's messy in different ways. That is life with teenagers and kids who are starting to do their own stuff. My daughter
00:18:13
Speaker
infrequently now but still occasionally will call me from town or from school and say could you just pop this over or up or down and then I make that choice. Will I, is it that crucial and we'll have a conversation about it later or will I let her fall and learn for next time? Yes and at what point do you draw the line? I sent them both a really sloppy text yesterday going you know I am not
00:18:35
Speaker
because they have a house key and then they lose their key. There's a secret way in the back door, which they both do, and then they lose the back door open and I realized the back door's been unlocked for three nights or something. You've all been murdered. Thank God it's not just us. I've got a key, you've got a key. I'm not opening the door to anymore and you're not allowed to use the back door anymore. You can hear their eyes rolling.
00:19:06
Speaker
I really know that you'll be getting them some more keys. Well in some ways I'm really jealous of their innocence because we've learned to be on top of all those things because of experiences we've had in life that have gone wrong. But equally that is the chore and it's not just a single mother's
00:19:26
Speaker
issue, that is the goal of any parent is to allow their children to experience failure, yeah, often enough that they learn how not to in future when they really are truly on their own. And that's the really big ask as a parent. It is. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, as a single mum, you get you get to call all the shots and you get to be in charge. And I think you're the kind of person who, you know, said in the book, I think so many single ones are actually
00:19:54
Speaker
strong leaders, you know, they're sort of not really recognised for it. It's that whole image problem again. Well, yeah, you mentioned some really outstanding names, people who've won awards because of the things they've done when they became single. Yeah, I think I was just trying to say that as when you haven't got the another
00:20:20
Speaker
adult to sort of back you up, sometimes start letting them fall or putting your foot down is extra hard. Yeah, but that's probably the reason that they come out of it a bit more resilient on average than other kids. Yeah, I think the whole thing really with this book was to just try to say that we're just all going through the same things that everyone's going through, but you don't need to necessarily feel sorry for single mothers. There's lots that's actually very positive and
00:20:50
Speaker
a lot of them, what I found talking to lots of the women that I interviewed was that they felt it had been the making of them, you know, that they'd had to really, it was a sink or swim situation and they'd really learnt to swim in that.
00:21:04
Speaker
in that moment. Yeah well you make the point that, well you just said it, you've always got someone to fall back on even if you're not getting on very well with them if there's another parent in the household and when you haven't anymore and as you say finances get stretched necessarily
00:21:21
Speaker
that is sometimes maybe the motivation you needed to really pull it out of the bag. And it's in, it must feel intense, though. What will you say to parents who are potentially in that situation discovering that financially, they're going to have to do something different because it's not working? What would you say in those early days is what got you through? In the early days.
Seeking Community Support
00:21:46
Speaker
Yeah, wine and avocados. Great. Yeah. So
00:21:52
Speaker
sort of broad advice, I think for single parents, like well, single moms, single parents, find your people, you know, without that other partner in the house, you know, find your best friends, find the relatives who are going to, who are going to be there and be prepared to ask them for help, you know,
00:22:10
Speaker
because you literally just can't do it by yourself, I don't think. But also, independence can be quite sort of intoxicating. And I've got a couple of friends I know who are sort of so fiercely independent that it's almost like they're addicted to it, you know, and letting someone help them is almost a sign of weakness. So for me, in case of get over that. And also how
00:22:38
Speaker
Even if it's kind of, please, could you pick my kid up on Thursdays? Or, you know, could they have tea with you one night? Or even, you know, just that one meal just might knock your budget down slightly kind of thing. Ask for help. And with the finances, just kind of, again, there is a lot more help out there than you think. So talk to Gingerbread, the charity who are amazing.
00:23:04
Speaker
but also talk to your citizens advice bureau and all those kind of organizations about, you know, particularly if you've got an elderly parent that you're also sandwiched between, you know, there might be grants and benefits and things that could help and also just don't feel ashamed about having benefits if you need them, having tax credits if you need them, you know, the system is stacked against you. So
00:23:30
Speaker
Yes. There is no shame in taking the very, very small amount that they offer you. Yeah. And if you can get it, then it's because you need it and that's what the system's there for. And also being reassured by the fact that actually this isn't because a lot of the people who are claiming universal credit now and tax credits are in full-time work.
00:23:52
Speaker
You know, they just simply can't make ends meet because they're in paid work and low paid work. Yeah, because their mums and it's, again, this little circle. So I think that we need to lose the shame around accepting help, whether it's from the state or from your friends or from family or whatever. Yeah, really good point. Yeah. And keep your eyes on the prize and you know, know that it does get easier and better.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's really good advice.
00:24:27
Speaker
I was going to ask you a question. I'm putting you on the spot here. I mean, you've talked about dating. I won't go into it. I will. And also the finances, anyone that's listening, there's an awful lot in there. I'll put those links to The Citizen's Advice and Gingerbread into the show notes. But by the book, we'll talk about exactly where to buy the book and titles and such at the end.
00:24:54
Speaker
But by the book, because there's a lot of information in there and lots of fun and games about dating. But what would you say if I put you on the spot? Is the funniest moment you've had as a single parent?
Dating as a Single Parent
00:25:07
Speaker
Well, I mean, I am actually seeing someone at the moment who I've been seeing a few months now. And it turns out I actually was I didn't actually have a meeting, but I was talking to his brother in law.
00:25:21
Speaker
teachers, and actually, you know, decline to go on a date in the end, thank goodness. The dating pool is quite small. So you do have these sorts of crossovers and coincidences, especially if you're in a where I live in Dorset. Yeah. I'm trying to think what else. Oh, I've got a good one. Have you ever run into your ex on a dating platform? I'm not excruciating. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, I sort of have run into
00:25:50
Speaker
I've, you know, someone that I've been on a few dates with has then sort of tried to go out with my friend and I definitely, yeah, you do have some crossover. I haven't ever bumped into my ex, thanks to me. I think, I think it's testament to how different we are. That we went on very different journeys in that sense. Yeah. So, yeah.
00:26:14
Speaker
that, oh gosh, sorry, yeah, you have put me on the spot there. I'll let that fizzle around. I'm sure there are loads of, I mean, there's a story in the book about my friend who, I think friendships have become much more important to me as a single mum for obvious reasons. And I've found myself drawn to other single mums. And I think because we're all, you know, just relentless, the minute we get any kind of free time, we all go a bit
00:26:42
Speaker
crazy. And I think I've really enjoyed rediscovering my female friendships as a, you know, not as part of a couple, but just as me and having some real laughs with, with my girlfriends and, you know,
00:26:58
Speaker
that I felt like probably wouldn't have happened if I'd been married. Yeah, you're right, actually. When you are living with somebody, you do get precious little social life as a parent anyway. So quite a lot of your social life is taken up in friendship groups of other couples. And I was seeing that as a negative originally, because I know sometimes you have to walk away from some couples because they have to
00:27:21
Speaker
pick a side. But actually, if all your social life is navigated by you and your own desires, that must be quite refreshing. Yeah, I have certainly lost some friendships. Certainly all the husbands of anyone I've ever met have gone.
00:27:44
Speaker
And I think, yeah, that it just, you know, as you say, you come as a pair and certainly when it's dinner parties and things like that, you know, you're suddenly a very odd, odd one out. But no, I think, you know, the opposite of that is that I've really gained some fantastic female friendships with women who've been through similar things and, you know, they've come through the other side or they're just, I think they're sort of too fabulous to be anyone's
00:28:11
Speaker
I guess it's the plus side of being a single mother, as opposed to a single father, it's actually easier to make friendships and connections. Generally, I'm stereotyping, but women seem to be more naturally positive about that. Yeah, definitely. And just, you know, just that sort of joyful silliness of female friendship, I think that
00:28:39
Speaker
I mean, I've got lots of friends who are men as well, and they're great.
Where to Find the Book & Conclusion
00:28:42
Speaker
And I do enjoy their company, but there's nothing quite like sort of when girls all get together and... Shriek of it. Missed my home. Yeah, let's be honest. Why not? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, so lots of positives. It's been fantastic talking to you. Tell everybody where they can find the book, what it's called.
00:29:03
Speaker
All the details. Yeah, so it's called Happy Single Mother and it's available on Amazon and it's a Kindle and an audio book read by me as well. But you can also get it at Waterstones and Foyles online and hopefully in stores I think as Mother's Day approaches.
00:29:22
Speaker
and there'll be more of them in stores. That was it for me it was always I wanted to write the book that you would give your friend if their marriage was gone tits up you know or if they just you know found out they're pregnant and they're not sure about what you know how it's going to work out and I just wanted it to be the reassuring read that you would give your friends so yeah if you're noticing and
00:29:46
Speaker
you know, if you know a single mother, I think we must all know a single mother. There's one in one in four mothers are single mothers in the UK. And there's evidence that actually it's a lot. It's one in three because you know, things change and you get married or you split up and you know, it's hard to really pinpoint the numbers. But yeah, we all know one. If we're not one. Yeah, well, and I'm gonna say I can vouch for the book. It's not often I get sent a book that has that doesn't
00:30:17
Speaker
that doesn't apply to me. Let's put it that way. It doesn't apply to me because I'm not a single mum, but still want to read it to the end. And I am nearly finished. I've got a tiny little bit left and I'll be finishing it off tonight. That's
00:30:32
Speaker
That's how enjoyable of a book it is, despite the fact that it is also really full of resources if you need them. So yeah, I can definitely thank you for it. Thank you so much. That is so lovely to hear. I'm really thrilled. And I think, yeah, I think that's again, if I can...
00:30:47
Speaker
get the concept of single motherhood into the consciousness of those who might not necessarily think that it applies to them sometimes, then that's why I consider my work to be done, definitely. Yeah, brilliant. Okay, well, I'll put the links to all of those places you mentioned as well for buying the book. Really appreciate it. It's been really nice to talk to you. Thank you. You too. Thanks, Sarah. Bye.
00:31:12
Speaker
Like Sarah says, we all know a single mum and we owe it to our friends and our sisters to understand them a little bit better. I've put links in the show notes where you can buy Happy Single Mother if you like it, yourself or for a friend.
00:31:32
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it. Thank you to everyone who's already rated and reviewed the podcast. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Amazon, it would mean the world to me if you could leave a review. It really helps get the word out, as well as making me very happy to read what you have to say. If this episode strikes a chord for you, please share it with anyone else you know who might be in the same boat and hit subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.
00:32:00
Speaker
If you have a story or a suggestion for something you'd like to see covered on the podcast, you can email me at teenagekickspodcast at gmail.com or message me on Instagram. I am Helen Wills. I love hearing from all my listeners. It really makes a difference to me on this journey. See you next week when I'll be chatting to another brilliant guest about the highs and lows of parenting teens. Bye for now.