. . .it's the loneliest number since the number one

Yeah, I'm taking a page from that one and posting a song as my title. This one is about being alone. I know there is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Now, being lonely is hard enough but being alone and raising children is really tough.

A relative of Dr. Evil has gone through a very difficult divorce and is now trying to raise a son and daughter who are 3 and 2 by her complete lonesome. If that's not bad enough, she lives Stateside. I know that I complain about the lack of things my country does for families but down there they really leave folks high and dry. I'm pretty sure that if I had to pay for my delivery, I'd be in a shack somewhere. But I digress.

Now that this individual is alone, she has come to realize just how hard it will be to do things on her own. Her parents are helping her but she laments at the constant struggle. She doesn't want their help. She wants to be able to do things on her own but is now in a position where that will probably never happen.

She says that she cries herself to sleep at night because she has no one to turn to when dealing with the kids becomes too much for her. Despite this she gets up each day and tries to make the best of everything. I suggested to her that she join this group.

I know that I complain about Dr. Evil a lot. I also do the majority of work taking care of the kids and house. If I really do end up having a bad day, then I can tell Dr. Evil to leave me alone for a while so I can indulge in liquor and ice cream (most of the time it's Bailey's poured over my ice cream with a glass of wine :) and surf the web watching episodes of whatever I feel like. He will comply and make sure Thing 1 and Thing 2 give mommy "alone time." Since everyone I know live far now, he's my only option and I'm glad that I can rely on him to do those things.

Don't get me wrong, he gets way more alone time than I do, but it's still nice that I have the option of relaxing now and then. Which is more than I can say for the Stateside relative.