According to the Angel Soft ad that keeps popping up in my Facebook feed, today is National Single Parent Day. A quick Google search shows me this is a real thing signed into being by Ronald Reagan (!). I’m not trying to get political but I’m surprised that the person who helped propagate the welfare queen myth actually did something positive for single parents. But I have gotten political, so pardon the digression.

Anyway, I wasn’t planning to post about being a single parent, though to be fair, every post I post about being a mother is about being a single parent. However, my daughter and I had an interesting discussion tonight, which was a true adventure in parenting.

As previously mentioned, my daughter turned 18 a few weeks ago. Since then, she has been itching for more freedom. This all came to a head last night when she told me she thought it would be best if she move out. There is a lot of backstory here that I won’t get into because most of it is her story and not mine, but the final conclusion was that she didn’t want to actually move out: she wanted to experience what it was like to be a grown-up without having to move out. In short, she wanted to try out a roommate situation to prepare her for college, which meant more financial responsibility and more freedom (i.e., no curfew).

So tonight we talked about money, and I showed her what bills (or parts of bills) she would be responsible for. In the end, she said, “I changed my  mind. I want to keep being a kid.” And then she asked me if I was going to blog about it for my slice of life post today.

As of this posting, I still have a daughter and not a roommate. But I also have a child who understands a little bit more about what it means to be a grown-up.

 

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