Mark Twain once said, “The lack of money is the root of all evil.”
There is a hidden unvoiced fear in every stay-at-home-moms’ heart – the ability to provide for her family if she ended up alone. After years of being out of the job market, she would have her own set of challenges when seeking employment again. So, I decided to talk about the financial challenges a single mom has to face being the breadwinner for her family in my latest book, Sweet On Me.
When the money isn’t enough and the bills are piling up, the alternatives may seem limited but there are other options:
Taking a pay cut in the beginning. She may have been out of the market for several years and re-entry at the same level of salary may not be possible. Working for less would help make getting a job easier. Some organizations even offer “returnship” programs which pay little or nothing but participants stand a higher opportunity of landing full-time positions.
Opting for different job roles or positions which may vary significantly from what she may be used to but have a higher likelihood of being obtained. Even if it is significantly out of her comfort zone, it still pays for the bills at the end of the day.
Going back to school in order to make herself more marketable, when her existing qualifications are insufficient in the current environment.
Not being afraid to seek help from friends and family. They may not have the means to help financially but they may be able to help with childcare or even a place to stay in times of need.
With a family to provide for, the single mom shouldn’t be forced to extremes from a lack of money … well at least, hopefully not like Ophelia in Sweet On Me 🙂
My child asked me today, “Why do you write, mommy?”
It’s been ten years since she was born and yet, I remember it almost as if it happened yesterday.
Would I have done some things differently? Probably.
Would I have changed a single thing about her? No, because I love her exactly the way she is.
“I write for you, my child. There are so many things I have learnt which I want to share with you and yet, I know now is not the time but I fear, tomorrow we may never find the right moment. One day, you will read what I have written and understand the journey that brought us here. Hopefully, you will take these learnings to make your life even better once you yourself become a woman.
Most mothers bring their bundle of joy into the world with the expectation of being able to breastfeed their infant and indeed, many succeed after delivery. Approximately 76.5% of women in the United States successfully breastfeed their child at birth. However, some are unable to continue as time goes by. The rate drops to 49% at 6 months. According to a survey by the Department of Health and Human Services, only 16.4% of new mothers are exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months.
In honor of the 2013 World Breastfeeding Week, download a complimentary copy of “Crazy For Milk” here and take a peek at the non-textbook realities of motherhood.
“I am a single mom and I’m the breadwinner and I have to work and I have to do these things and that’s just the way it is – Charisma Carpenter”
According to a recent Pew Research Center analysis, working moms are the sole or primary provider in four-in-ten households with children, as compared to one-in-ten (11%) back in 1960. Not all are breadwinners by choice. 63% of these women are single mothers who earn a median income of $23,000, less than a third of the $80,000 median total family income of married mothers who earn more than their husbands. With adequate resources and someone to take care of the family, it can work out for the single mother but what if she doesn’t have them? Who pays the price when she has to work?…Read more
I had heard all the stories, the old wives’ tales, the dos and the don’ts.
I had read books and researched materials on the Internet.
I made sure I bought everything I could think of beforehand — the baby clothes, the baby bottles, the diapers, the diaper rash medication, the lotions, the soaps and the baby cot.
I planned upfront all the housework that needed to be done and did as much as I could before I entered the labour room so there would be less to do when I got home with her.
I had even meditated and got myself into a Zen-like-state so that I would be as ready as I could be to bring her into this world.
I wanted to be ready.
I had thought I was ready.
I really believed I was ready.
That is, until the milk came.
Check out the new Bedroom Secrets novel, Sweet on Me, a tale of seduction, money and love – now available on Amazon. It’s a Kindle Edition – so those without a Kindle reader or app can use the Kindle Cloud reader to read it!
“Father, forgive me for I have sinned.
Terrible things have been done to me. It arouses me. Pleasure at being used by a man I barely know in exchange for money. Even though I never sought him out in the first place, I cannot resist temptation. I have to go back for more.”
Tony Woods is bored. Money doesn’t excite him anymore but corrupting the straight-laced, naïve Ophelia does. He has no qualms making her into his personal sex toy.
Ophelia Wilde isn’t the same woman she was before. A year ago, she was an abused wife, unfamiliar with life’s pleasures. Now, her senses are on fire but she’s dying of shame, desperately trying to juggle her conscience and her wallet.
Trapped by her lies, she struggles to hide her sins from her new-found love, Josh Summers, living in fear of discovery every day. He is drawn to her vulnerability, seeking only to protect her from the big bad wolves out there, not knowing that she already belongs to one.
Will Ophelia find a way to leave Tony and escape the chains of her past, or will her misdeeds destroy Josh’s trust in her? Can their love survive the weight of her guilt?
Having just delivered a baby, faced with engorgement as her breasts overflow with milk, where does a woman turn to for help? The one closest to her, the one whom she believes can save her, the one whom she puts all her faith into finding a solution for her .. her hero, her saviour, her husband.
Breastfeeding is never easy for a new mother and when her body becomes a stranger to her in the middle of the night, behaving in ways unfamiliar to her, giving her pain beyond anything she ever imagined before, she turns to the love of her life for help.
But often … can love be enough when the solution is not what she expects? Desperate times call for desperate measures … but is she desperate enough? She wants to be saved, but when his actions take her beyond her comfort zone, pushing her into the realm of the unknown … is it enough for the ends to justify the means?
As a man, he wants to be her hero, her knight in shinning armour ~ the one who keeps her safe … but how can he protect her from herself? How can he stop her from turning on him when the solution he presents to her is something she isn’t ready to accept?
And yet despite everything, she still wants her hero to save her.
At first, it looked like ordinary lingerie, just with a little more frills when I opened up the red-ribbon-tied, white gift box and pulled aside the shiny, cream coloured tissue paper. It was only when I tried to unravel the mystery of how the different bits and pieces of satin, lace and thin garter straps fit together that I came to a slow, panicked realization of how it was meant to be worn.
Blushing an equally deep red to match the satin, I held the tiny piece of material up to the bright florescent lamp on the stark white ceiling. With barely enough fabric to block out the light, it was salaciously sexy and the most provocative outfit I had ever seen.
Talk about putting icing on the cake, I winced, the blood rushing to my cheeks. Someone, please save me! He can’t seriously expect me to wear this. The most exotic thing I have so far is the sheer lace babydoll he gave me for New Year’s.
“Go ahead, put it on,” he said, as he put his legs up on the corner of his cluttered, dark brown office desk, leaned back in his high-backed, black chair and lit his Benson & Hedges cigarette, savouring the sight of my blush.
The front of the panty was made of exquisite, intricately designed lace, that left nothing to the imagination as it changed midway to a wine red satin thong, that fit snugly between my butt cheeks, hiding nothing of me from behind. The lace was secured to my hips by a satin belt that made an upside down “T” as it rose upwards in a slim faux diamond strip, where it met my neck, in the form of a delicate, black, one-inch wide lace choker, leaving the two soft, pale mounds of flesh bared and inviting.
I stood there, waiting, goosebumps chasing themselves up and down my skin but I couldn’t blame it on the cold even though it was the middle of January. The heating was on and it was warm inside his small office. Overly exposed, that’s how I feel. Shivers ran through my body every time the cold, metal clips hanging from the end of the garter straps grazed my skin.
“There is a pair of matching black silk stockings as well. Why don’t you put those on?” he suggested, drawing another puff from his cigarette and exhaling slowly.
With barely any room to maneuver in that tiny grey box of a room he called an office, I gingerly pulled the stockings out and turned to the chair on my right, lifting up my left leg and perching my foot there, so I could carefully roll the stocking up.
It was unnerving the way his eyes traced the side profile of my twenty-eight year old body — the fall of my long, wavy brown hair past the crook of my neck; the curve of my slender, bare shoulder which led down the snowy white skin of my lightly toned arm until it met my bare hand, resting on my hip; and the smooth roundness of my tight ass.
“Very nice, Ophelia, very nice indeed,” he remarked once I had finished putting the stockings on and spun around to strike a pose for him, stifling a hysterical laugh as I looked self-consciously at myself.
I look ridiculous! I thought to myself uncomfortably, as I rolled my eyes, an awkward imitation of one of those lingerie models I used to see in magazines. This is so not me.
“Don’t do that, Ophelia. You look amazing dressed like that. I am so happy you wore it for me,” he smiled slyly as he cleared the surface in front of him. “Now, come lie down on the desk in front of me. It is time for dessert and if it is as delicious as I fully expect it to be, we can invite some guests.”
My heart rate jumped as I sucked in a startled breath. Oh, shit! What have I gotten myself into?
A single mom struggling to make it on her own, Ophelia winds up with a sugar daddy. What is she willing to surrender to enjoy the benefits of this no-strings-attached arrangement?
Kathryn Michaels 