It’s been all part time jobs and random gigs for me.

And we saved up money beforehand, then bought a cheap house in a rural town, so neither of us had to work for the first 2 years.

It was really hard for me to wait (it was my husband’s idea to save up first; I just wanted to get pregnant right away) but I’m so glad we did, because it made the beginning years possible — they were still so hard, because my mental health was bad back then — but at least we didn’t have money stress yet at the beginning and were able to concentrate on parenting and figuring out who these new versions of ourselves were.

Yes, balancing work and parenting is SO HARD, even with a partner.

So single parenting? Yeah, all my admiration!