Monday, February 10, 2025

Reigniting Purpose and Motivation in Single Moms: A Journey to Thriving Together

Show Notes

This podcast episode encourages single moms to reignite their passion and purpose as they navigate parenting challenges. By emphasizing personal growth, education, and strong connections with children, the discussion offers practical advice and motivation for embracing the journey of motherhood.

• Exploring the concept of "ignite" in the context of motherhood
• Recognizing the struggles and stress faced by single moms
• Reclaiming personal identity and aspirations after becoming a parent
• Importance of modeling positive behavior for children
• Encouraging continuous learning and skill development
• Practical advice on managing finances and independence
• Fostering meaningful connections with children through communication

https://singlemomsunitedpodcast.com/

It's not how you arrived at the title, but what you do with it.

Show Transcript

Hey ladies, welcome to the Single Moms United podcast, where this podcast is designed to encourage you, single mom, motivate you as a single parent.

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It is one of the hardest things that you have to do.

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Why?

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Because a lot of those decisions that you're having to make are on your shoulders.

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And how do I know?

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Because I'm a single mom.

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I'm an older single mom, but I'm a single mom and I know the stress that it can bring on and it's nobody's fault, right, we made that decision, we made that choice, so we're living with it.

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Right, I just want to talk about today, living with it.

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Right, I just want to talk about today and if you've been following along with me these last few episodes into 2025, talking about the letter I and extracting word choices from the letter I, and today's word choice is ignite yeah, catch on fire, let's do this.

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Mom, when we talk about ignite, that means we just got to get re-motivated.

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That's my definition for it as a parent.

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You know the struggle is real, the stress is real, being overwhelmed is real, all of these things are real.

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And so how do you counteract that?

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So, hopefully, today, I'm just going to walk through a few things to hopefully encourage you, get you re-motivated, to get back out there and say you know what I can do this From my experience.

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There are more days that you're overwhelmed than you know.

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Under the water than you are above the water episode will bring to you.

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And if you do, embed it into your life, introduce it into your life.

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And you ask me well, why is this important?

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Well, you have children.

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Now You're more than a mom, you're more than a nurturer.

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You're there, you're an educator.

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Your kids are watching you.

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We can talk until we're blue in the face as far as what we want our children to do and how to behave, but at the end of the day, they're watching us, they're mimicking our behavior.

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So it's all about being visual.

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So, moms, I would encourage you right, I know this is not a one-size-fits-all, but a one-size-fits-most that you can extract some thoughts as far as your parenting skills to get reignited with purpose as a single mom.

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I talked about this early on, about losing your identity as you become a parent.

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That's real.

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Now your focus has changed, your priorities have changed, or at least they should have.

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How about that?

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So, mom, if you're still doing some of those same things, or prioritizing some of those same things prior to having your children.

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I would challenge you to rethink that right, especially if it's taking away from your kids.

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But anyway, let me get back on the highway.

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As we become parents, we become mentors.

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We become that person our children look up to, and rightfully so.

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They should, we should, be that example for them.

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Now keep in mind I stated there is no perfect parent.

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All there is is good and bad parents.

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And again, a good parent teaches, a bad parent doesn't.

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It's just that simple.

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And here's the good news, and I hear you like well, I don't know how to teach my kid this, that and so forth You're actually teaching them through the behavior that you display in front of them.

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So I would challenge you to think about that.

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If you're displaying bad behavior in front of them, they're absorbing that in their pores.

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Literally.

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You're going to find them or see them displaying that same behavior that you displayed.

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So don't think that everything that our children learn is verbally.

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It's also through eyesight, visual.

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As a parent, it is overwhelming.

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It's a lot that happens that causes us to lose focus on our purpose.

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I just want to talk about a couple of things today to help you get refocused.

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Go back and write down what your purpose was before you had your child.

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Right, we all have dreams, you know we all want to be somewhere or, you know, be successful, and we had a dream of what that looks like.

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And if you lost that dream, I would challenge you to go back, write that down.

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How difficult or how easy it may seem, that's on you, on you Now.

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Go back and see how you can go back to redefining your purpose, reigniting your purpose.

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Like me, you felt like you were more under the water than on top of the water with your parenting.

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Yeah, you get discouraged, you get depressed If you go back and say you know what I always wanted to do X, y, z.

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Here's your opportunity.

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Write that down.

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Three to five year plan when do you want to be at in three years?

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You're going to be three years older.

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You're going to be five years older.

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So this is your opportunity to take that time and write it down what you want your future to be, how you want your future to look.

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Time is winding up, it's not waiting on anyone.

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And keep in mind, your kids are going to be three and five years older.

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So there are some things you're going to have to do differently with your parenting that you're not doing today, all right, it's time to you know.

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Enhance your mindset, always be learning and, ladies, I tell you I said it once, I'll say it again you are in the perfect environment to learn new skills.

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There's no excuse for you not learning something.

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Youtube is filled with how-tos.

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Fill with it, whether it's cooking, cleaning or just learning something different.

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So take this opportunity, learn something and, matter of fact, you can even take it further and learn it with your child.

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I didn't know anything about podcasting.

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I'm a lot further along than where I was when I first started, but I've learned.

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I've looked things up, I've joined groups, I've found my niche and I just learned all these things so that I can be an effective podcaster.

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Right and hopes.

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At the end of the podcast, someone says you know what that really made me think oh wow, that was really good.

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I never thought of it that way, and so I set my benchmark at one.

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If one young lady says you know what this has helped me, that's all I need to hear and, matter of fact, speaking of hearing, I'm getting off the exit again.

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If y'all could visit my website, singlemomsunitedpodcastcom, and leave me some feedback, would love to hear from you, and if not the website, then go on my YouTube page Would love to hear from you.

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But anyway, now back on the highway.

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It's important, ladies, that you always learn something, and it doesn't have to be major, and especially as a parent, right?

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You know we are in tax season.

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One of the other things that I learned along life's journey is how to do my own taxes.

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That was well before technology came around.

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I was handwriting stuff out.

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Why did I learn how to do that?

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Because when I went to tax preparers, they were taking large sums of money out of my refund, and so I'm like, yeah, this is not okay.

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So I got motivated to say you know what?

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I'm going to learn how to do taxes myself, and I've been doing them for, yeah, over 30 years now.

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It's the greatest thing that I've learned, and I'm still learning.

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Now am I a pro?

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So don't come say, hey, can you do my?

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No, but I know enough that I'm able to do my own taxes.

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And this is tax season.

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Ladies, navigate through life and that overwhelming feeling of you know not having enough money with our finances.

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Well, you're just giving money away for something you're probably perfectly capable of doing so I would encourage you, learn how to do your own taxes.

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I'm not going to mention any of the tax companies out there.

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You can do your own research.

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For the most part.

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It's really easy.

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It really is easy, ladies.

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If I can do it, lord knows you can do it.

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Look that up, do your research and, again, always be learning, because, guess what?

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You can pass this along to your kids, because eventually they're going to have to start working, eventually and they're going to have to do taxes.

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You get ahead of the game.

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You learn how to do your own taxes.

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You learn how to do your own taxes.

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You learn how to teach your child what it means and why we have taxes in the first place.

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And if you don't know that, this is a good opportunity to look that up.

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And you don't even have to go to the library.

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Think about that, ladies.

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You could do it right on your phone.

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The library.

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Think about that, ladies, you could do it right on your phone.

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Or if you have a laptop or tablet, you can look this stuff up.

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Always be learning, ladies.

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Always be learning, because you are now the educator you are.

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You shouldn't put that on someone else's shoulders.

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Let me say 100% on someone else's shoulders.

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You should take a good percentage of teaching your child not just good and bad, but just standard things that happen in life and how to prepare for those things.

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As I finish up today's episode brief and to the point I know I hear you you are excited about that.

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Right, and I'm excited too, because it's going to make editing a lot easier.

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But if you found value in this episode, encourage another single mom.

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Do that for me.

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We have to encourage one another and then, after you, encourage another single mom, encourage your children.

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Put that phone down at least an hour a day and spend some time with your child.

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Talk to them, understand, ask them what questions they have about life Right, because sometimes they may not approach you on their own, you know.

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But if you take the time and say, hey, what happened at school today or anything unique happened, what it'll do?

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And even if you don't know the answer, it's going to force you to look it up.

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Ok, ladies, I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

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If you did, tell another single mom, encourage your children, get reignited, start burning again, get motivated, because it's so important that you take this opportunity and make it the best opportunity.

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Yesterday's gone and tomorrow's not promised.

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So don't wait.

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Start that fire, light that match now Get motivated, get encouraged, and I hope I was able to share something with you today that you say you know what I needed.

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That, and thank you so much.

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Have a good day, ladies, take care.