Dating : Stop Saying “Happy Father’s Day To All The Single Moms”

I am a single mom.

With Fathers Day upon us, I keep seeing all sorts of posts about “happy Father’s Day to all the single moms” and this always grates on me.

I try every single day to be the best mom I can be, I work hard to make sure my child is loved and taken care of with no help from the other person who made his existence possible.

It is hard and exhausting and the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

I make it a point to point out whenever the opportunity arises that families come in all different varieties (two mommies, two daddies, single moms, single dads, grandparents that are raising their grandchildren, adopted families, blended families, and so on) and that the important thing that makes a family is love.

Fathers Day is for all the dads out there, like my own, who are killing the dad game.

I don’t want my son growing up resentful of the fact that he doesn’t have a dad or not understanding that there is value in being a good dad someday.

Maybe it’s the fact that I know firsthand that not all people who you consider a father figure are actually your biological father.

I was blessed with an amazing father who has always been supportive and loving and kind and present.

But I also recently lost someone I considered a dad as well. He wasn’t my father but he taught me so much about life and was just as supportive and dad-like as my own father. I wouldn’t be half the parent I am today without the lessons he taught me.

So I don’t think it’s right to take the spotlight away from the dads who are, like me, working their butts off to raise good humans.

My son doesn’t have a father of his own in his life but that doesn’t make me his dad.

I do what I can to fill that space in his life, and where I fall short of that (as is inevitable because I can’t be two people) I make sure that he is surrounded by wonderful men who can provide share some of their Dad-ness with him.

So on Fathers Day, let’s all celebrate the dads in our lives, we all know a great dad in this world so celebrate them.

Single moms are not “dads too”. We are mothers. Badass as we may be, we are not fathers. And that’s okay. I get my day on Mothers Day because that’s who I am; I am my son’s mother.