Single Mom Summer Guilt

Single Mom Summer Guilt

Let’s talk about single mom summer guilt. Not the cute, yet irrelevant version where you wish you took more pictures or posted more family content. No, I’m talking about the kind that sits in your chest all summer long because your kids are home all day and you’re still expected to work forty hours a week, keep the house clean, buy groceries, make memories, and somehow enjoy it.

Summer used to mean a break.

Now it just means a million more things to figure out.

Who’s watching the kids?

What are they eating?

How much is camp?

Can I afford Blue Bayou? 

Can I afford to start school supply shopping?

Can I take off work?

Should I take off work?

AM I DOING ENOUGH?

Should I feel guilty for taking off work, or guilty for going to work because they’re only little once and my time with them is running out? 

It’s a losing game.

The internet will tell you to make a summer bucket list. That’s cute.

My bucket list is making it to payday without somebody needing new shoes or another bill over-drafting my bank account. 

I see people posting Disney vacations and beach trips and matching family shirts while I’m wondering if frozen pizzas count as dinner because I’m too tired and overstimulated to cook. 

So naturally, the guilt creeps in. Because they’re bored. Because they want to go somewhere. Because you know this summer matters to them.

You start thinking they’re going to grow up remembering all the things you couldn’t give them.

But nobody tells you that you’re grieving too. You’re grieving the version of motherhood you thought you’d have. The one where someone else packed the cooler, loaded the car, paid half the bill, or at least entertained the kids while you took a shower.

Instead, every decision lands on your shoulders.

Every expense.

Every meltdown.

Every “MOM!”

By the end of the day, you don’t even know what your own thoughts sound like anymore.

And the worst part? You feel guilty for being overwhelmed because these are your kids and you love them more than life itself.

Both things can be true.

You can love your children with everything you have and still think, “This is really freaking hard.”

You can be grateful and exhausted. Present and burnt out. Happy they’re home and counting down until school starts.

That’s not being a bad mom.

That’s being a mom who’s carrying the weight of an entire family by herself.

And honestly?

Some days, summer isn’t magical. Some days it SUCKS. Some days it’s just hot, expensive, loud, and one hundred days too long.