Yvonne Baginski shares about the challenges she faced raising her children.
I didn’t make the grade of a perfect parent. At least not with today’s standards. When I raised my three children, it was a tough haul. There was a divorce, a stalking boyfriend, a foreclosure where I lost my home and lots of times when I was just looking for a job. I shopped at Salvation Army and Goodwill and was a well-known face at the local food bank.
As a single mom, there was a lot of juggling to make life go. There was also very little sleep.
With parents and relatives living thousands of miles away, I struggled finding cheap child care, doubling up with other single mom’s to trade off time so that we could squeeze in part-time, temporary work. Our vacations were usually a weekend camping trip. The house was furnished with curbside castoffs and frankly, I wasn’t the housekeeper of anyone’s dreams.
We survived though, and those three children now have post graduate degrees, married, with good jobs, homes and even have their own children. I want to believe I had something to do with that. They are materially successful at a time in their lives, when I wasn’t. They shop at Whole Foods, use Door Dash Deliveries, all brand new clothes and have standards of organization that, well, wear me out.
I still can’t shake off my frugalness. When my grandchildren were babies, I combed curbsides for car seats, toys, books and giant cardboard boxes to play in. I attacked garage sales with renewed fervor, stacking piles of clothing onto my front seats in all the sizes that they could possibly grow into. Now my past tried and true methods of mothering are ignored. Instead, Instagram or the on-line mommy’s group is the expert of record. It’s not that they’re wrong, and I’m right. But it does take some time to get used to the differences in this new world of parenting.