I want to get off........

I'm going to have a moan. I try not to do it too often. I can't stand the 'poor me' mentality, and I do like to think of myself as having a glass half-full, as opposed to half-empty. But sometimes, you just need to have a moan. It helps to lift the burden and ease the pressure.

Any working single mum will be able to relate to this moan. I want to moan (just for a couple of minutes)about the COST of being a single, working mum.

There is a threefold price to pay for all of us single mum's who are stuck on this treadmill. We all feel the frustration. It's that constant feeling of running uphill and not really getting anywhere. You try to do your best at your job, and you try to be the best mum on the planet, but ultimately you end up feeling as though you are spreading yourself too thinly, and failing miserably at both tasks. Sound familiar?

That's the emotional cost.

Then there's the physical cost.

I'm a bloody wreck most of the time. I don't mind admitting it. I'm shattered. Totally and utterly shattered. I'm in my PJ's by 8pm each night and invariably asleep by 10pm.

If anybody suggests I do something one evening after work, I have no choice but to politely decline. The batteries are all but empty by tea time.

And as for weekend socialising? You've got to be kidding! It's all I can do to drag the kids to the supermarket!

Finally there's the financial cost.

You'd think there would be a financial incentive for all us hard-done-by working mums. I mean, there has to be a reason for dragging ourselves to the office each day, doesn't there?

Sadly not, because the cost of childcare is so high, we're destined never to really benefit. The more you earn, the more you pay for the childcare. That's they way the 'machine' works. I guess it's the same the world over......*sigh*

So, why do we do it? Well, most of us simply don't have a choice. When you're left holding the baby(ies), you just have to get on with it. Somebody needs to support them, and why should it be my fellow tax payers? And, if I'm really honest (and heading back into glass-half-full territory again), I'd much rather be holding my babies, than not holding them. That would just be unthinkable.

So, I shouldn't really complain, should I?

OK, OK, I got it off my chest. I'll get back on again now.......

Thanks for listening x