Category: motherhood

This morning while we were laying in bed watching cartoons you said “I don’t have a dad.”

“WHAT?” I replied.

I was caught completely off guard I didn’t know exactly what to say. My heart shattered into a million pieces. For the first time you actually realized that piece you are missing and I think for the first time I realized that this feeling you have of being different is something that I can not fix.

I have been so careful to shield you from this reality. I made sure that nobody ever talked about the situation in front of you. I would change names in books to mommy instead of daddy. But right now, whether I was ready to or not I have to try and explain to you that this is okay- its okay to not have a dad.

“I don’t have a daddy. I only have a mommy. My friends at school have dads. Why don’t I?”  You looked down completely heartbroken and confused.

“You’re right and it is okay to be sad. You don’t have a Dad, but you do have me and I love you to the moon and stars and back. You have a MiMi, Papi, KiKi, and a GiGi. They love you so much! Nobody at school has any of them, they are only yours.” I answered trying to make you feel better and special as you are.

I have tried my hardest to protect you from this hurt. I went through all the steps to make sure that he couldn’t ever come back to hurt you.

I wanted a normal life for you. I wanted the two parent home. I wanted the perfect picture of a family for you.

A house full of love, happiness, laughter, and memories. I like to believe I have given you that-you are loved beyond measure. The only thing you don’t have is a man to call your dad.

I have nerf wars with you. We build legos and play cops and robbers. You have an amazing family who loves you. Tons of friends who adore you.

You have a Papi who does all of the “boy” things with you. When I am at work you have MiMi, Kiki, and GiGi who always play with you.

You may not have a “normal” family, but you definitely have a loving one

As a single parent you try to be everything for your child. You have to be the mom and dad.  You are there for every bump and bruise, every success, and every nightmare. You want to save the day and make all their hurt go away.

You ARE everything to them.

Before we dive into this, I really need you to know and understand me.

My past has been a rocky one, but it has shaped me into the woman I am standing here in front of you today. The woman that you hopefully will love and appreciate. This past has created fears, heartbreak, and made me learn some serious life lessons early on. It gave me a beautiful son, who I hope you will love as your own if it ever got serious. In the past I have been used, abused, and taken completely for granted, because of that I am not settling for anything less than the whole package. The boys before you were just that, boys. They didn’t know what they had until I was gone, then would continue to try and come back into my life. I fell for their games a few times, but I refuse to ever do that again. They didn’t understand me, so before you really decide you want to do this, I need you to understand these few things.

I am my own person. 

I am independent. I am strong. I am okay being by myself. If I ask you to come to a family get together by all means come, but don’t get upset when I pick time with them over time with you. I don’t need to talk to you all day everyday. If I am going to have a girls night, let me. I will let you know when I am home. I was controlled and smothered. They call in “love bombing” for so long that if I feel any sense of control or insecurity on your part I will break things off immediately. I can pay for my own tab, I can open my own doors, and I sure as hell can order my own food. You can be a gentleman, in fact I will love that about you, but please respect my independence.

I am a mother first. 

I can not stress this enough. My child will always come first. If he is sick I am sorry I am canceling on you. If he is in a mood where he just needs his mom, I am canceling. If you don’t understand and respect that, then I will cancel us completely. See I am a mom and a dad to my child. While finding someone to fill that spot would be amazing, its not a necessity. This makes who you are as a person even more important to me. I am a mother 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. I will always strive to be the best mother to my child, you are free to hop on board with that or get off the ride.

My Past.

My past is a more than just a windy road. It has huge pot holes, twists, turns, and giant cracks. But I am so thankful for it. If you love me, then you must love my past. It has strengthened me, made me grow, and made me a hell of a great person. I have more compassion than anyone you know. I have a lot of baggage and, to be honest, most of it you won’t understand. You won’t understand why I have to sleep with the windows shut or check the door and window locks 10 times before I go to bed at night, but let me. My past will cause fear in our relationship, and I am extremely sorry for that. I refuse to ever go back to a toxic relationship. I will not let another man ever have control and ownership over me again. I refuse to go back to that dark hurtful place I was once in. I relive my past every single day. Looking over my shoulder, checking the back seat in the car, always looking at my surroundings. Somedays are worse than others, it will cause me to have huge walls up and act tough, but I promise I am trying.

I may be strong but I have a huge heart. 

If you ask anyone about me they will tell you stories of strength, triumph, and happiness. I am laughing most of the time, whether that be at myself or with others. There are still places of my heart that I will never fully you allow you into. There are times where someone is calling me for help and I am going to get up and take the phone call. Whether that be my best friend going through a hard break up or a girl who found me and is wanting to know the safe steps to leave her abuser. I am a firm believer in being the person now, who you needed back then. My friends were there for me at times where I didn’t want to live anymore, I will always be there for them. The girls who call me are asking for guidance, they look up to me, I owe it to them to be there to help however they need me to. This huge heart applies to you as well. I will give you the shirt off my back, I will bend over backwards to make you feel special, but please don’t take advantage of this. I can give you the world, but I will take it away as quick as it was given and once its gone, I’m done.

I am hard to love.

There are times where I am extremely emotional and times where I am extremely cold. Sometimes I want all your attention and sometimes I want space. Everyday is different for me, somedays are happy and somedays I will be triggered and have a bad day. I am difficult. I will be the first to admit that. I need to be able to communicate how I am feeling to you free of judgement. I will listen to you always, but I need the same respect back. You will either be willing to deal with that and find a way to love me, or you will walk out like all the others have.

I am terrified. 

I am absolutely terrified to love someone completely again. I have been burned, bruised, and beaten to the ground. I want to believe you are different, and I really hope you are. I want things to work out but every relationship has ended the same way. I am scared to let down my walls, put my whole heart and soul into someone just to be left again. I am not going to be someone out of convenience for you. I am not a toy you can pick up and put down as you see fit. If you want to be with me, you will understand that it is going to take time to break through my walls.

So, If you are the MAN– not boy- who will love me next your work is 100% cut out for you. If you are willing to do it, then I am willing to try. I am not like other girls. I am my own woman and need to be treated as such. Please don’t bother with me if you aren’t really wanting to be the forever person to me. I don’t have the time or energy to play any more games. I wish you luck, and Hey, I believe in you. 

Just because a man took your power away and completely destroyed you at one time, does not mean you cant rebuild yourself now. You don’t have to give up on yourself.

He took you for granted. He didn’t notice when you bought a new dress just for him. You wasted money. He didn’t tell you how great your new hair cut looked. He liked it longer and curled. When you put a little extra effort into getting ready for date night to look good for him. You were trying to get attention from other guys. 

He was never wrong. All the times he cheated. All the nights he stayed out drinking. Those were all your fault. The minute you stand up to him, he hits you. He lets you know and shows you that you are below him. You are nothing.

Every time he hits you, you know he is wrong, yet you can’t do anything about it.  Your phone is so close, you can reach it. Call the police. Call for help. But you can’t move. You sit there and take it. You take every blow waiting until the screaming stops.

You get in the shower to wash off the blood, the shame, the fear. But it never leaves. No amount of scrubbing can take care of the filth you feel. You look at yourself and you don’t even know who you are anymore.

You stay awake all night running through everything that happened in your head. Every single detail. How could you have made it different? Why didn’t you fight back? Why didn’t you just walk out? Why did you let someone take away your strength? 

You don’t ever want to be that girl. The girl who people look at and pity. The girl who will always question a piece of herself. You loved the man that destroyed you, what does that tell you about your taste in men? I never wanted to be her, but I was.

We all look at therapy as a weakness. Only crazy people go to therapy. You are weak if you go. That couldn’t be further from the truth. You are forced to face who you are fully and completely. Rebuild your strengths and crush your fears. You find out more than ever who you truly are. Choosing to go to therapy isn’t something weak people do, it takes strength to stand up and say you need help.

You are a gift. A gift to your family, a gift to your friends, and a treasure to whoever you end up with. It took me completely losing who I was to figure out who I needed to be.

You can hear how important you are, how beautiful you are, and how special you are from a million different people. But until you actually look yourself in the mirror and see all those things, you will never feel important, beautiful, or special. You will never know how strong you are until you fix the weak parts of you. Sometimes you need to absolutely hit rock bottom to climb your way back to the top.

It is their fault. Every single time they hit you, screamed at you, took the steps to destroy you. It was all them. You are strong. You are beautiful. You are worth it.

There will always be mountains you have to climb. Curve balls. Bumps in the road. But you will be okay, I promise. You will learn so much about yourself.  It is never too late to see the potential and passions that you possess.

It is never too late to love yourself. It is never too late to rebuild yourself.

We live in a time where dating has a million different meanings and stages. There is dating, talking, being exclusive, seeing other people, basically we are all terrified to get attached.

We all fall for the illusion of what we think love is instead of waiting for something real.

We settle for failed relationships that give us what we want instead of what we need.

But every time we find out that this illusion, this “situationship” as I like to call it, will never cut it. We all deserve an incredible, whole hearted, respectful, and meaningful love. I for one, am done selling myself short. I am going to wait for something real.

This cat and mouse game we call dating is out of control. We are always afraid to be the ones who get attached first in fear of heartbreak. What we forget to realize is with every failed “situationship” there is a lesson to be learned.

We learn that we deserve someone who will love us even in our darkest times. This person will embrace your scars and broken pieces. They will love you for your broken pieces and insecurities.

We learn that we should wait for consistence. Someone who will always be there incase of an emergency. If my world starts crashing in I need to be able to count on you. Someone who will put in continuous effort-even after they have you.

We learn to wait for the one with drive. Someone who wants to be somewhere in life and has goals they want to meet.

We learn to wait for someone with integrity. Someone that not only loves your body but your heart.

Wait for the one who will never make you wonder. You won’t have to wonder “what are we?” You will feel like a priority in their lives. You will never feel like a second choice.

Wait for the right person. They will be your best friend, your partner, and biggest fan. You could meet them tomorrow, next month, or next year. What a shame it would be to be stuck in a “situationship” and miss out on love.

We live in a society of revolving doors. Guys picking a new girl every time they change their underwear. What happened to courting someone? Going out on a few dates before hopping into bed with someone?  The worst part is that its not just men doing it to us, ladies we are doing it to ourselves.

We have lowered our standards immensely from the time that our parents dated.

We have gotten to a point where its okay to waste each others time. We date, get close with a person, then drop them as if they never existed.

We should want so much more than what we are settling for.

I want to get to talk and get to know you. Date nights and the awkward meeting of the families. I want to laugh with you and to earn trust. Most of all I want respect.

I want you to respect me enough to tell me what is going on. Be verbal with how you are feeling than actions to follow that. How are we supposed to know when a relationship is over when it never really started?

I know that I want an old fashioned kind of love. Where doors are opened, trust is earned, respect is given, and time is valued.

But now we have millions of people at our disposal every single day. Look at all the dating apps- if someone doesn’t look the way we like we just swipe left and then a millisecond later a new face appears on our phones. We judge everyone by their looks and not who they actually are.

We guard ourselves so much because of the fact that everyone views the other person as disposable. We never let our walls down. We don’t have real, deep, or meaningful conversations. I want to talk about your feelings, I want to know about your deepest darkest secrets and fears in life, your goals and where you see yourself in 10 years.

Instead we “talk” for a little while, a few months go by and then its the classic line of “I really like you a lot but I am not really interested in a relationship right now, but we can still hangout.” We refuse to put labels on our relationships. We hangout all the time, talk to each other every day, you can become intimate but no we are not boyfriend and girlfriend. God forbid anyone knows that either of us are off the market. We have to keep our options open incase someone better comes along. We might have to actually put someone else’s needs before our own? What a shocking concept.

What happened to opening doors, pulling out chairs, going on multiple dates, meeting families? Taking the actual steps of a relationship? Instead, we will go out to dinner, send these pictures of ourselves, hook up, and accept not being boyfriend and girlfriend. When did this lack of respect and fear of commitment become our new normal?