How to raise a baby as a single mother?

Raising a baby with your partner is an easy and loving experience because you both support each other while caring for your child together. However, raising a baby without your partner is really a challenging situation, especially if you are a woman.

The way you raise your kids highly affects their personality type, as explained in Baumrind parenting types. A single woman may have to work to fulfill her needs and take care of her child simultaneously. Handling both situations at the same time is challenging. However, If you have finalized your decision to raise your baby alone, you don’t need to worry anymore. We have got some useful and practical tips that can help you a lot in this journey. We understand that the first few months will be tough for you, but you will get used to it with time. After few months, you’ll start to love this experience.

Define some rules

Let your child know that you are the boss and they have to follow the rules no matter what. We are not saying about too many strict rules that make your child depressed, but they should know the time to enter or leave the house, limit the time on screen, self-care, and about good behavior. That’s how your child will stay under your control and tend to become a well-mannered and obedient person in the future.

Encourage good behavior

You have to spend some time enforcing good behavior in your child. If your child behaves well or does something right, reward them for their behavior. That’s how they will know that they have done something great. In response, they will try to do something even greater to please you. If they do something wrong, tell them that they have done wrong and need to fix it. You don’t need to shout or correct their behavior with anger. You can just tell them politely, and they’ll learn with time.

Maintain a positive relationship with your child

Children feel secure and loved when a mother maintains a positive relationship with them. You have to create a comfortable environment for them. Try following things to maintain a positive relationship.

• Spend quality time with your child every day. You can talk about dinner, their favorite things, or toys. You can even watch tv with them.
• Play different games with your child. It will help you create a strong bond with your child. Moreover, physical games also help in good physical and mental growth, which can be really beneficial for the child in the future.
• Try to praise your child for their actions and good habits. Whenever they achieve something even, it’s a small task. Say you are proud of them. Show your excitement for their achievement.
• Always pay positive attention. You can hug or kiss them to show your affection. Your child should know that you love them more than anything in this world.

Spend time with each child alone

You should focus on this point if you have more than one child. It’s good to spend time together as a family. However, spending some time alone with each child can help you understand them better. You can spend this time either by reading a book or just talking.

Maintain a balance

A single mother needs to maintain a perfect balance between work and family life. However, it is a tough situation for both parents as well because they have to figure out several things like who will pick up kids from school and who will make breakfast and dinner for them. However, a single mother has to perform all these duties because she doesn’t have her partner anymore to support her.

She needs to make a perfect schedule to maintain the right balance between work and family life. You should know about your busy days in your week, so try to give extra time to your kid for the rest of the days. Try to spend the whole weekend with your kid. You can go out for a picnic, for a movie, or to the parks.

Managing budget

Managing your budget is important, and it’s really tough for single mothers because they no longer have a partner to support the family expenses. Make a good estimate of your monthly expenses, then spend accordingly. You can divide the monthly expenses into two parts; variable and fixed expenses. Your fixed costs include house rent, loan payments,  and kids’ school fees.

In comparison, the variable expenses include fuel cost, food, clothing, car maintenance, electricity bill, phone bill, and entertainment cost. You can do nothing in the fixed expenses because you have to pay them at any cost. However, you can reduce your variable expenses by using them smartly. Your variable expenses should be according to your budget. That’s how you can efficiently manage your monthly budget without any worry.

Author is Rob Smith   info.babyswing@gmail.com