
When you’re a single mum, dating is always slightly more complicated than “meet someone, fall in love, settle down, live happily ever after”. By single parenting’s very definition, often you’ve tried that before and there is an unfortunate fifth stage of “s*** hitting the fan”. Call it being realistic, call it being jaded, when it comes to dating I keep an open mind and hope for the best, while quietly expecting the worst.
My relationship with my ex-girlfriend was beautiful and challenging, and we taught each other so much, but ultimately she was set on a course of “happily ever after” (that everybody deserves to strive for, and I hope she finds) while my awareness of the invisible, but highly possible, step five left us moving in opposite directions.