There are 'socially acceptable' single moms, but I'm not one

By Stephanie Land

This piece was originally published in SheKnows.

I read Sheryl Sandberg's recent Facebook post from the trenches of a horrible Mother's Day weekend. The youngest had thrown up on Friday night, and we slept on the couch, sitting up and surrounded by towels, and didn't move much the next day. Mother's Day came, and I tried to put it out of my mind. I'm a single mom and estranged from my family. My daughter at one point asked if we could go get a treat, since it was Mother's Day and all. When I said I didn't have money to eat out this month, she said, "Well, can't we just go get a treat for me?"

Sandberg's post touched a soft spot in me at first. I felt a little hopeful that by her recognizing that single mothers don't have it easy and many of us live in a hopeless place of poverty, maybe some of the stigmas surrounding us would change.

For more on this story, check out SheKnows.com.

Stephanie Land is a writing fellow for the Center for Community Change.