Calling all single moms

When I was a kid and my mom was single, she had a whole posse of single moms she hung out with. There were no online communities back then, so I’m really glad for her that she found nearby friends with whom she could swap dating stories and childcare.

Now that I’m a mom, I have a whole new understanding of the challenges single parents face. And that’s just the logistics. I can’t possibly understand the emotional and social experiences.  But I’m seriously rooting for them.

I asked Rachel Sarah (pictured), a local bloggy friend and author of Single Mom Seeking: Playdates, Blind Dates, and Other Dispatches from the Dating World, to share a list of her favorite single mom blogs.  (Since I started writing this post, I learned that a friend has recently become single, so I am especially glad to share this list.) I hope that some of you will find some support, humor, entertainment, and strength from reading these writers.

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By the time Rachel’s daughter was seven months old, she and her daughter’s father were over. He’d left the country to start a new life.

Eventually, it was time for her to start a new life, too. After two years of parenting solo, she decided to enter the dating scene again. But she wasn’t yet ready to dive in, maybe just splash in the shallows.

Along the way, she realized what really matters: family — her father, step-father, and sister step in all the time — and a fantastic group of friends. Rachel also went on to write a book about dating as a single mom: Single Mom Seeking: Play Dates, Blind Dates, and Other Dispatches from the Dating World (2007, Seal Press).

She launched her own blog in 2006 — Single Mom Seeking and has been listed as one of Babble’s Top 50 Bloggers in 2009.

She blogs about finding her own way: as a mom, a journalist, and a woman who has fallen deeply for a local goofball scientist.

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Here are the single mom sites I think are most helpful for new moms who are suddenly single (by surprise or by choice) who could use some community.

Singlemommyhood: Disclaimer: I co-founded this blog with Dr. Leah Klungness, a psychologist and the co-author of the award-winning book The Complete Single Mother. Dr. Leah is also known as “The Sanity Fairy” and you can imagine why.

CoParenting 101: Launched by an amazing mother and father who divorced and now co-parent: “After our marriage ended, we became the poster-children for divorce amongst our circle of friends and colleagues. We wished we could have been the poster children for successful marriage, but it didn’t work out that way”

Ewokmama: Crystal, single mom of a son in S.F., engaged to “my amazing fiancé.  I work at a software company (surprise!) and Jack attends the best daycare EVER when he is not spending time with me or at his second home with his dad.”

Momma Sunshine: Single mom of two lovely little girls, a dreamer, an unsuccessful wannabe vegetarian, a blogger, a lover of chocolate, a coffee addict, a runner, an eating disorder survivor, and a hopeless romantic who would rather let my heart make my decisions for me.” She often writes about her long-distance relationship with single dad blogger Canadian Bald Guy.

Solo Mother: Christina began her adventure as a single mother in late 2006 with four suitcases, $400 and a kid who would turn four in a matter of months. Today, she is a communications professional by day–and by night, a passionate writer about the life and times of single parenthood in all its forms. Short on sleep but long on interests, she finds time to throw pots (wheel, not wall) and pursue other dreams; housework can wait. 

QT Mama: She’s hilarious! “I’ve been a single mom since November of 2006, and what an adventure it is.  For the first time in my life, I take out my own garbage.  I pick up dog poop.  Okay, really? I pay someone else to do it because it makes me gag.  I cut lawn, shovel snow, pay my own bills and have what I consider to be a kick ass life. Did you know that telling a man that I am a single mom, has for me, at times, been like using a spray-on man repellent?

The Quest for T: Another disclaimer: One of my real life blogging friends in Texas who recently reconnected with a guy from high school on Facebook… and has fallen in love.

She has two daughters and “great co-parenting relationship and friendship” with her ex-husband. “I am wordy, introspective, in-your-face, a little crazy, moody, painfully honest, weak, strong, positive, negative and everything in between.”

Me and my Monsters: An adoptive mom.  I’m in awe of this 30-year-old “single Christian African American mom” who “became a foster parent in Feb 2007 and adopted 2 biracial boys (known as Boogy and Destructo on this blog), currently ages 3 & 5. I am currently in the research stage for adoption #2. I am determined to adopt an infant girl this time. I am considering adoption from Ethiopia, Foster Care, Haiti and Jamaica in that order.”

Want more from Rachel? Read her book!