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Tips on Parenting Young Children from a Single Mom

Kristin Rowan
3 min readJan 10, 2023
Photo by Emma Bauso: https://www.pexels.com/photo/toddler-in-a-crib-2253894/

Parenting is never going to be ideal, especially if you’re a single parent of two young kids, so here are some tips I’ve gathered along the way so far. I should note that both my kids are generally healthy and developing for the most part typically, so my tips may not be helpful for all situations.

The more ways you can safely contain your child the better.

Pack n’ plays are perhaps the most useful implement a parent can have. I set my youngest up in there with toys and I can take a shower.

Strollers are super handy to get grocery shopping done. Sometimes they’ll even take their nap in there, which is great for when one kids naps and the other doesn’t.

I make a mental note whenever I find a play area that’s at least mostly fenced in. Unfortunately most of these end up being dog parks so not very useful.

I know leashes are frowned upon, but my kids pulled too hard for them to be really useful anyway. But if you can leash-train your kid, I say go for it!

Most of the things parents get judged for shouldn’t be on you.

They should be on the people who could be helping but aren’t.

Like screentime. If I consistently had a second responsible adult I would not allow much screentime…

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Kristin Rowan
Kristin Rowan

Written by Kristin Rowan

Comedian (https://www.youtube.com/@kristinlrowan), author of Paula and Mr. Meanie Pants, single mom

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