Being a single parent is no walk in the park especially to a toddler. Not only are you dealing with a tiny human who is just starting to discover a multitude of emotions, you're doing it alone while likely juggling work, school, or both. There are no "breaks" or "time-outs," you don't get to hand your child off or go for a walk to blow off steam. You have to face every issue alone and even with a well-behaved child there are moments of defiance, eye rolls, and the occasional tantrum.

If you're lucky you wake up to a happy, smiling little face, but in the blink of eye things can turn from peaceful, loving bliss to a nightmare of a morning. As you rise you may get a breakfast request for cheerios in which you comply, but by the time the bowl reaches the table tears are flowing and they do not want their original demand. You quickly try to compensate like a waiter at a restaurant desperately trying to reclaim any tip they may have after spilling a drink on the customer. You start offering different foods: eggs, pancakes, oatmeal. "What do you want?" you ask and as the words leave your mouth like a paint can spilling over you know you've just created a bigger mess. You know you should never ask a toddler an open-ended question to that magnitude. You look across the room and your eyes meet a package of cookies out in the open and as you turn back to your offspring, slowly making your way in front of the package as to create a visual barrier between you and the sugary snack you realize that they have already been spotted. "COOKIES, COOKIES, COOKIES.." they begin to chant as if a prisoner in Attica. You try to reason with them, but after a solid twenty minutes of screaming and tears, your child is having cookies for breakfast.. *sigh* at least they're dunking them in milk...

Of course you then need to shower so you sit your sugar filled monster in front of an episode of Dora and quickly try to fit shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and shaved legs in five minutes. But it wasn't quick enough. You hear a thud followed by some crying. You run into the room soaking wet and hardly rinsed, towel wrapped around you and see that your little demon has managed to destroy your living room with 50+ toys thrown about, couch bare, a fort has been created, missing remotes, markers out and uncapped, your books have been decorated with said markers.. oh and your spawn isn't even in the room, they're in the kitchen and had fallen down trying to climb up to get more cookies. SO you scoop them up, inspect them for bumps, breaks, and bruises, retrieve an ice pack and whisk them away to their room to get them dressed. You'll deal with the mess later, because now you're running late.

You finally seek out their favorite shirt to get them dressed, because they HAVE to wear THAT shirt and set them down with a toy you hope will keep them preoccupied while you dress yourself. You run to your room to throw on whatever is clean at this point because who really has time for coordination at this point. To your surprise your toddler has actually stayed put, for which you praise them, because for the past five days they have discovered that they're tall enough to turn on the faucet in the bathroom and you usually find them soaked and playing in it.

You run out the door with your purse, keys, phone, and some cash for lunch, although you took the time to pack them a healthy meal that they'll later refuse to eat and likely throw on the floor. You buckle them up in the car and start to drive towards the daycare, but again the waterworks turn on because they've thrown their favorite toy at you and now they want it back. You wait until you've stopped at a stop sign and blindly dig around for it on the floor and hand it back only to have it hurled in your direction a few moments later. As you approach the daycare the become excited to go play with their friends, but as you turn to leave they decide that all of the sudden you're the only thing in the world that they want and scream like a hurt animal for you not to leave. After an additionally five minutes of hugs and kisses and reassurance that you'll be back to pick them up you manage to escape.. but now you're going to be late to work.

You savor every childless moment while working, but by the end of the day you cannot wait to hold your baby again. However when you arrive at the daycare in excitement to embrace your little one they cry like a chick being murdered in a scream movie because they wanted grandma to pick them up. Once calm and in the car they're immediately "starving" and you think 'i got this, I came prepared with a snack.' Just kidding. It's not the one they wanted. The entire drive home they ask you for a different snack and once home you give it to them, but now they refuse to eat dinner. Only twenty minutes after you've put the leftovers in the fridge they request another snack and when you refuse they throw yet another tantrum. You refuse to give in this time. You attempt to stand your ground, but you know they're only going to wake up in the middle of the night hungry. You manage to negotiate them down to macaroni and cheese.. and it's funny because you used to have this idea in your head that you were only going to feed your kid wholesome, non GMO, non processed, organic foods.. ha! That worked out well, huh?

After you've fed them you manage to bathe them (only flooding part of your bathroom) because what fun is the tub without you having wet socks? On to bedtime, where they have requested the largest, most annoying storybook they have and because you've pretty much exhausted yourself you don't even try to fight it. They now proceed to ask 775,361 questions while interrupting every other word you read and you promptly answer them hoping to quench their thirst for knowledge but it then turns into a series of "whys?" and with that you skip a few extra pages and try to lay them down. Only now there is several requests to go potty in which they produce no waste, a demand for water which they hardly take a drink from, and finally they ask to sleep in your bed.. and although you had 6,432 things to do this evening you're now spent and allow them to crawl in your bed with you, because at the end of the day you only have each other. And while you're lying there in the dark, holding them in your arms, they whisper, "I love you" and every bad moment of the day melts away.