I was watching the news a couple of months ago, and stopped on a local news channel. The reporter is talking to a nurse with very white hair, yet there is something very familiar about her. I keep watching and realize that this is the mom of one of my best friends since high school! Wow!

I keep watching, she looks almost the same, a little heavier, hair a little whiter, but her voice sounds the same. The reporter is talking about the fact that Sheila is 75 years old and is employed as a licensed practical nurse at the local hospital. Wow again! I knew Sheila had been a nursing assistant when I knew her 20+ years ago, when her daughter Cheryl and I were best friends.

I keep watching, and the reporter is talking about how Sheila went back to school as a single mom, at 45 years of age, with 5 children, and became a nurse. Ummm, excuse me? I was there, and I recall it complete different.

Sheila was very personable, very easy to like, but at the age of 40, she left her home, with her husband and 5 children still in it! She rented a one bedroom apartment 20 minutes away and continued to work as a care aide at the hospital. Yes, I do remember her telling us that she had wished she had gone to Nursing School, and while married to husband #2, and still no children to take care of or support, she did go back to school.

My friends mom, a dead beat mom, who now tells how she raised 5 children on her own – Liar!

So now I am listening in disbelief that she likes to tell her story and be an inspiration to other moms out there wanting to go back to school. I am speechless! Sheila, you left your children with their drunken father. You did not pay child support. You had a one bedroom apartment with rented furniture. You never even put your kids on your health insurance or dental plan. You were supposed to give Cheryl a dental visit for her 17th birthday present – and you never did. Sure I don’t blame her for leaving her husband. And her kids weren’t little anymore, the youngest was 12, BUT don’t make it look like you are some hero, because you are definitely not!

Here is a link to a divorce site with stats on woman and mothers that decide to be deadbeat moms.

My first ex husband paid child support, for which I am grateful that he cared enough to do that, (he was certainly lacking in other parental duties but anyways) more on that here.

#militantsinglemom, #singlemoms, #familylife, #deadbeatmoms, #momlife