I am the child of a single mother.
She became a single mother about the worst time in her life,
when her children were all in adolescence.
And I hated every minute of it and fought her at every turn.
I wanted our family to be like the Partridge Family.
But looking back on sixty years, she pushed me in the right direction,
even if it wasn't what I wanted to do, I wanted to get into mischief.
She made me take the classes in school I needed.
She kept telling me, 'if you don't like it, find some aspect that's interesting.'
As I grew into adulthood, she taught me how to look at issues from all angles.
Yes, she very much made me who I am today.
Thank you, Mom.

dad died at very young age.
We had to move into government housing (AKA the projects) and our mom went to work. It wasn't easy, but we got by.
I will never forget the look on our mom's face when I graduated college. All the sacrifices were realized when my name was called to come and get my diploma.
Our mom was an incredibly strong and determined woman who would direct our formative years under great stress.
She always told us that a liar is worse than a thief because liars always have to invent new lies to cover the old ones. If Trump was raised by our mom the world would be more civilized and less predatory. Too bad he was raised by jackals and rabid hyenas.

Wanda Sykes had a stand up where she mentioned putting single moms in charge of the national budget. (I think it was her Sick and Tired bit). As a single mom who raised my kid alone, I'd have to agree. (Shout out to single dads too)

Those with the least amount of money are the ones who actually HAVE to stick to the plan if they want to feed and clothe their family.

Our social economic system is completely upside down. Tax breaks for private jets and yachts while cutting health care and food aid for the poor and working class.

She only had a high school diploma an era where women had just been given access to credit cards. It was tough on her scraping by with two kids and an ex-husband who didn't make good on child support.

Complicating things was her tattered emotional/psychological condition. It took two to tango in fracturing the marriage and her dance steps were to a time signature of histrionics and public meltdowns. Sometimes it manifested in emotional abuse of her family and children, but when your father is basically absent then a child has little choice but to stick beside the unstable mother.

It was a bad situation all around but it could have been worse.