There’s some discussion on the Work It, Mom! blog over the concept of the “single married mom.” From Nataly’s post on Tuesday 7/24:

The controversy is cropping up in the comments, which include responses from women who are, or have been, single working moms and seem to feel that this idea breezes over the real challenges that they have to deal with when a partner or spouse isn’t in the picture at all. It’s not quite the new “mommy wars” variation that Nataly suggests, but there do seem to be some issues being aired.

I’ve been in both places, and as I said in my own comments to the post, there were many times in my first marriage when things felt out of balance, especially when my son was younger. First Husband often gave me the impression that his time was more valuable than mine, and that even though he did take some domestic responsibilities, they were on top of 60+ hours a week devoted to his work, and I should always be aware of how busy he was. And while he was definitely in favor of our being a two-career family, he was rather a traditionalist as far as housekeeping and meals went, and since I had “more” time and it was “less” valuable, most of the regular cleaning, cooking, chauffeuring, errand-running, etc. was up to me. And when he did things with our son, it was almost like it was booked into his schedule. From one perspective, you could say he was really good at time management, and you wouldn’t be wrong. And in reality, there was some degree of flexibility about who did what, but no room for slacking off.

At the same time, I can understand why it would rankle to hear a married woman call herself a “single parent,” just like it’s always bugged me when fathers say they’re “babysitting” for their own children. When you’re single, it’s all up to you or it doesn’t get done, and one of the things I missed the most during the first couple of years after my divorce was that extra set of hands around to help out if I was sick, or just overwhelmed. I had a very hard time learning to cut myself enough slack so that I’d really feel like it was OK when something didn’t get done (and honestly, I’m still working on believing it). On the other hand, I did learn that I could handle much more on my own than I would have thought, and that was very empowering and a confidence boost.

As far as the “parent” side of that phrase goes, I had a son in college and living on campus 2000 miles away at that point. While long-distance parenting has its unique challenges, they don’t involve after-school child care, and when the kids are sick, all you can do is nag them to go to the student health center (and worry, of course – worrying is what we do when we can’t control the action). And while I’m aware that another thing that can rankle is equating kids and pets, I did tend to describe myself as a “single parent to my dog” during those years. No matter how long my workday was or how I was feeling, there was no one but me to feed and walk her twice a day (at least), play with her, and clean up any messes she made. I didn’t go anywhere overnight without her for almost four years (that’s 28 years to you and me, as Lorne Greene used to say).

Now I’m married again, and it is great to have that extra set of hands around once more, although they belong to a different person this time around. (That’s not the only thing that’s great and/or different, either, of course!) We have pretty similar outlooks on domestic division of labor, although there’s very little specific assignment other than he runs the vacuum and I clean the bathrooms. It usually works out that each of us tends to be primary caretaker of what we brought into the marriage – Tall Paul for the kids on their days with us, and me for the dog every day (although either of us can and will step in for the other whenever necessary). We both work in full-time, responsible positions, and we’re flexible domestically when the job life gets more demanding, but we try to leave work at work (other than the venting about snafus, office politics, and the like – another thing I missed a lot when I was single was someone to discuss the day with).

As the saying goes, “there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’,” and maybe that’s the issue.”Married single moms” may feel that way because they expected that they’d be operating as part of a balanced team, with their husbands, and it’s not working out that way – in the worst imbalances, they’ve got all the home-and-child responsibilities they’d be carrying if they were SAHMs, plus they’re working for pay at least part-time and probably more. Aside from their working, they are in a much more traditional-roles arrangement than they probably intended. That may be why they feel like they’re having to do it on their own – but an actual single mom will point out that they really don’t, because that other adult actually is available if he’s really needed, and he’s contributing financially even if he’s not doing much more domestically. But aside from the family-management concerns – although there’s no shortage of those – the bigger issues are what’s lost, and what can grow in the space left open, when one spouse is just not really there on an ongoing basis due to long work hours, travel, etc.

My own experience is that while it’s not necessarily true that “it takes two, baby,” at least not all the time, it can be a lot easier when it does, as long as the two are able to meet somewhere close to the middle.

Subscribe to Blog via Email