Anyone here work Full-time and live on their own?
Do most of you live with your parents and don't work or work parttime? I'd love to talk to some moms who are in a similar situation as me and can relate to my difficulties. I'm in my late 30's and have a 4 year old. My Xh is very involved in our childs life and has visitation every other weekend and every wednesday night. I just "celebrated" one year as a single mom and while I'm slowly adjusting to my new lifestyle, it still gets very lonely. I still get very sad/down when my boy not with me. I'm exhausted from working all week and struggling to keep up with house work. I don't go out with friends-in fact, I've lost touch with most of my friends as they are all stay at home moms (I was one too, before the divorce) and they are not available to hang out with me. I'm feeling lonley and isolated. I'm constantly worried about finances, trying to tighten my belt and save as much as possible. Last but not least, I have no family in the US. 
Can anyone else relate?
Re: Anyone here work Full-time and live on their own?
I can some what relate. I work fulltime and live on my own with my 1 yr old DD. I get out with friends MAYBE once a month. It does get lonely for me because most of my close friends do not have children. They are all also in relationships and im not so that feels isolating to me. Unlike you my daughters father has no part in her life. If i want to go out i have to find someone to watch her so it doesnt happen too often. My biggest stress in life is finances and savings for our future ( BD does not pay his child support).
I am lucky to have family to help watch DD while I am at work and pitch in when im stuck but single mama life is VERY LONELY. I have my DD but when she goes to bed its just me every night. I also dont have any single mama friends to relate to
I can't relate completely, since I lived with my parents (and still do) since me and my daughter's father split 6 years ago. But I do work full-time and pay rent (and bills and all that good stuff and help with the housework and all).
And I totally get the feeling lonely bit. Take advantage of your time alone when your son is with his father. I looked forward to those weekends to go out and have a good time, or just stay home and treat myself to whatever I wanted (bath, wine, a girly movie, etc.)
I live alone with my 2 yr old son. And I whole heartedly agree that it gets very lonely!!! E's father isn't involved as well so I would have to find someone to watch him if I wanted to do something on my own. My family live about an hour and a half away so having my mom watch him would have to be emergencies! I have not gone out with friends since...man, I can't even recall. I called out of work one day just because I needed "me" time. I dropped him off at the daycare and spent the day pampering myself (manicure/pedi), went to the movies, and had a wonderful afternoon nap. That was ages ago and I enjoyed that day!!!
I work full time and I live on my own and have since the XH and I split. We don't see XH ever, so it is me, 24/7 (which is fine with me) but it is a lot of work, hard financially, and yes, at times, lonely. I do have friends, but I don't ever do anything with them with out LO, I don't have anyone around to watch her and can't afford to pay anyone. I pay most of my monthly income for daycare. We go to visit my parents a lot, but the are an hour away, but sometimes I just need 5 minutes and they can offer that to me. I haven't gone out, like out with out LO since, well, since before she was even born. Its hard to not have people to talk to, people who don't have kids don't get it...and honestly, you have to be a single parent to really get it at all.
My first break in over a year was about three weeks ago, I drove LO to my parent's and came home to run some errands, clean our apt. and have a few adult drinks. All of that home, alone. I didn't have anyone to do it with. And I got to sleep in the next day. It was nice, but lonely.
I live with my two daughters, a cat and a dog. Their dad takes them one weekend every 10 weeks or so. I do have alot of friends and we have playground meet ups, etc., and I have 4 trusted babysitters so I go to dinner with them or with my boyfriend (who is a single dad of 2 kids also).
If your ex has EOW, you should definitely go out with friends, find an activity, a book club, or do something for yourself in that time!
DD2 11.17.08
So good to hear from you all! Any ideas on how to go about making some mom friends, single or otherwise? No prospects at my job. I reached one to a couple of moms at his school but it seems like they already have a circle of friends established.
I wish I could offer some advice on that, but I can't. I have had the same issue. From what I can tell, married moms don't want to be your friend, so you almost have to find single moms. I have met one person that is a single mom, by accident. Other than that, I have no one.
I tried to do a "mom group" that said it was for all moms...working and sahm, but all the play dates and events they did were doing the day, during the week.
It's tough, I am not gonna lie. Next month will be a year of me on my own, it went fast, but no doubt it was lonely.
For the most part, I don't have an issue keeping up with the house cleaning, etc, but that is probably because I don't have much to do. We had to start over and all I could afford at the time was a one bedroom, which is fine, LO is still very little. So I don't have much to keep up. And I don't have outside yard work.
I like to spend all my free time outside of work with LO, so I come home at lunch time and clean or wait until after LO is in bed. I want to make the best of the few hours we have each day and our weekends, so I bust my butt to get the other stuff done when I can.
I have LO full time, we don't see the XH. So I did have my parents watch LO one over night a few weekends ago so I could "spring clean".