Day 48

 

Single Parenting

 

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling.

 

Psalm 68:5

 

 

I have the utmost compassion for single parents. It is hard enough being a parent when there is 2 of you, let alone just 1. I know this because I experienced it.

For the first 7  months of Ethan's life his mother had been at home so I had a little training on how to take care of a baby. After Cathy died I was on my own. It is a good thing that kids are close to indestructible because I had a lot to learn.

I learned the difference between spitting up and throwing up. I was used to spitting up but when projectile vomiting started I was amazed. How could someone so small blow chunks across a room? I thought I was in a scene from The Exorcist. I kept waiting for his head to spin around. When it started pouring out the other end too I didn't know which way to point him.

I also learned about giving a baby a bath. I had some friends over one night and I excused myself from the conversation to give Ethan his bath. After his bath I brought him back into the living room and one of the women there asked me how come Ethan was so red?

I told that he had just had a hot bath. She asked, "How hot?"

I told her that the water was about as hot as I liked it. I was then informed that babies are to be bathed in warm water not hot water.

I didn't know it was too hot. He never told me it was too hot. Of course he hadn't learn to talk yet. I guess that is why he always looked like a fresh cooked lobster after his bath.

People would always tell me, "I guess you have to be his mom and his dad."

I would answer, "No, I just concentrate on being his dad." I figured that if I tried to be his mom he would grow up with the strangest idea of what women are like.

The most memorable thing about being a single parent is being tired. I would work all day, come home and take care of my child until he went to sleep and then have to do all the work I couldn't do with him awake and under my feet. I actually grew to appreciate Barney videos, not because I thought they were entertaining, but because they would hold his attention long enough for me to cook supper.

The Bible teaches us that God cares about single parents. Time and time again you can read how God has a special place in his heart for widows and orphans. In the Old Testament there were laws that had provisions for the care of single parents and their children. (Then as it is now most single parents were moms). In the New Testament we see that help for those single parent families should come from their church family.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 1 Timothy 5:3-8

*Please note that generally in Bible times you became a single parent by being widowed.

• A widow with children (a single parent) should learn to do what first?
• Where is the single parent in need supposed to place their hope?
• Should a single parent live for themselves?