parenting help: I am sick and tired of always being “dad” or “worker”. - Help.com

I am sick and tired of always being “dad” or “worker”.

The only time I have to myself is in the car driving to or from work. Then there is the hour after between the kids bed time and mine but I am ushually so exhausted all I can do is a few chores before falling into bed just to get up and start all over again.
Social life? Don’t make me laugh! Beiing a single parent and not getting any child support or visitation from my ex does not leave a whole lot of scratch left over after the bills are paid.
Both of my children are female with the older one starting to develop and I am frequently at a loss when trying to give her advice. Especially when it comes to making friends. That is what I need help with the most, how do 10 year old girls make friends? My daughter has a difficult time with this, prefering the less challanging company of younger children. She is much more intellegent than her peers and this makes her more of an outcast.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This open post was written 6 months ago | V/U/S: 145, 4, 3 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post


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Since writing this post smooth may have helped people, but has not within the last 4 days. smooth is a verified member, has been around for 2 years, 6 months and has 2 posts and 4 replies to their name.

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parenting, single dad, daughters (How Tags Affect Reciprocity)

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J.N Location unknown offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 436 #
An Undisclosed Location | 6 months ago (6 minutes after post)

Are there any other female family members, do you have a sister or female cousin, maybe your daughter could talk to them about the things girls do & if its a close family member you know it will be good advice. Is there no one that can babysit for you so you can get some time to yourself?

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Help me with: IDIOT SIGHTING”S - The sad thing is these are all true.
smooth offline Verified User (2 years, 6 months) Long Term User Shouts: 0 #
Orlando, FL, US | 6 months ago (34 minutes after post)

This site sure is running slow!
My mother lives 2 hours away, and we do make that trip about once a month. But she grew up in a different era/circumstances. She is not always a lot of help. I do have a sitter I trust, but money is always an issue. What I want is for my ex to have regular weekends with them but she is an OTR driver and is only in the state every couple of months.
Other than that there is not really anybody I could get help from. My family is spread all over the country and I myself am not a very social person.
I thought I had the problem solved when I met a single mom who was interested in taking on the role but she turned out to be a real witch towards my daughter so I had to break that off. I don’t want my daughter to grow up a social outcast the way I did but it looks like that is the way she is heading.

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J.N Location unknown offline Verified User (8 months, 3 weeks) Long Term User Shouts: 436 #
An Undisclosed Location | 6 months ago (44 minutes after post)

Are there any kids of a similar age live on your street or nearby? She could play with them. Do u meet anyone at the school gates? If you got friendly with other parents you could get a deal going where 1 day your kids go & play at their house with their kids then another night their kids come to your house? That’d take abit of pressure off you. Get your kids involved in out of school groups or clubs, you’ll get time 2 yourself & they’ll get to make friends then outside of the club hrs they could play with the friends they made

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Help me with: IDIOT SIGHTING”S - The sad thing is these are all true.
blueskys6 offline Verified User (2 months, 1 week) Shouts: 0 #
An Unknown Location | 2 months, 1 week ago (3 months, 3 weeks after post)

Sounds like you are a really good dad and a good person. Do your daughters participate in extracurricular activities. So many things they could do, sports,(running, vollyball, softball, swimming,etc) music (choir,band, just learning an instrument) and, arts and/or crafts. Or book clubs. I dont know how you feel about church, but that is another way to make friends. All of the above things help them meet more people and feel better about themselves. And you are lucky (even though I know that is hard to believe) that they trust you and confide in you. I sure hope everythng works out well for you. Best of luck!

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