This is the first mom blog post that has resonated with me in a long time. My daughter was planned and yes we were very young (17 and 18). What did I do differently? I didn’t stop first to check if my family, my community, or society was ready for our family. I made a commitment to the little life that was to be, and trusted that as I asked, the universe would provide. That is not to say I didn’t have a plan, but trusting that, in fact, we are ALL kids here, I was able to execute my life plan effectively.

For all of the immature decisions we make in our youth, certainly the decision to bring forth and nurture life should be met with respect, support and love. Respect, as I didn’t ask permission from anyone, has been hard-won. The tough choices that young parents have to make in terms of sacrifice demonstrate a level of devotion to your children that I am realizing is rare. However, most of society doesn’t consider this or take notice. Young parents, from my experience, get into the moment with their kids and enjoy “realtime” more often because likely, in some ways, they are just kids, too. All of Earth’s inhabitants are kids. There is no “adult,” only responsibility, respect, dependability and determination. At 17, I was ready to demonstrate these.

My daughter is a beautiful, smart and vivacious teen that loves all creatures and respects and believes in herself. She knows that life is often a battle with the self first, and because of this, many are fighting the same inner battles. She can share, listen, empathize, show love and forgiveness and put herself in even a stranger’s shoes. She has boundaries and can say “no”, makes decisions on friendships based on if it is truly helping or harming, and can be open and honest with her mom about most of it.

As I see my daughter flourish in her adolescence, I try to remind myself to stop and critically look at the picture, acknowledging the reality that the world has missed: My daughter and I are a success story. I have raised her without a partner, child support, or otherwise, completed university and chased my dreams, she has grown into the type of person we all want to be, and we have, together, been steady in realizing our goal of creating a life that we love, surrounded by the people we love, doing the things we love. We started in a position of requiring support, nurturing, acceptance – and were denied these. In creating them for ourselves, we can pass this on to others and add to the voice of defense for young, often single and isolated, parents. (Don’t give up!)

Thank you for the article and the moment to reflect.

Love this! Mothering is beautiful regardless of age. <3

I love, LOVE your reply! Beautiful put, it is such a privilege to have those extra years!

🙂

Sending support your way… <3

What a beautiful “happily ever after”. No two stories look the same and it sounds like you did a great job raising her.

Sometimes people can be so rude. You just keep rocking the mom life and know you have a huge support behind you. 🙂