You wake up one morning…realizing you are alone. You roll back over and cover your head with that one lone pillow on your big king size bed. Now, these are the times you try to remember why you’ve chosen to be alone, why I’ve chosen to be alone. “I am happier alone because I don’t have to share my thoughts. I don’t have to take care of anyone else. I don’t have to check in. I don’t have to be intimate if I don’t feel like it. I don’t need permission to sleep in. I don’t have to worry about someone wanting me to give to them when I just do not feel like giving”. The list can be endless.

For me it’s simple. I have kids and they are my priority. They depend on me to take care of them as they grow into young adults. Maybe I choose not to date because I feel obligated to my children 24/7? Maybe I feel guilty for having a life away from my children because my choices, along with their father’s, brought them a broken home. I do, however, believe very strongly that there is a difference between giving all of yourself to your children and giving the best of yourself to them. If I don’t take the time to feel good about myself, then am I really giving them my best?

I think, for me, that I would like to find a man who is in a similar situation, a man who puts his children first but still believes a meaningful relationship, albeit time-constrained, is possible. But, it hasn’t been an easy thing to find, at least for me. That’s why I’m here, online, and looking for my match. I’m hoping that access to more potential singles than I have following the normal dating avenues will increase my chances. But, frankly, I am apprehensive.

It’s a scary thing to put myself out there. In the past, I guess I have always relied on chance encounters. But, given my specific requirements, chance encounters alone simply aren’t enough. So, I found an Online Dating Site I felt comfortable with, FreeDatingScene.com, and I’ve sent my Online Dating Profile off into the land of electrons, like a message in a bottle, hoping that my awesome man is doing the very same thing right now, and that his Dating Profile comes floating back to me.

It isn’t without precedent. My sister met her husband on an Online Dating Site eight years ago. They now have a beautiful son and a wonderful marriage. I suppose we’ve all heard these kinds of success stories, as Online Dating isn’t a new phenomenon any more.

I say this to all of the single parents out there. Go out on a limb and check out the online dating sites. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised, as I have been so far. Hopefully, we will find others like ourselves that have their priorities in the right order and the same goals and interests as you and I. I think we shouldn’t be asking “What do I have to lose?” but rather, should be asking “What do I have to gain?”

~An Anonymous Single Mother Optimistic About Her Future