Doing It All as a Solo Parent (HBR Working Parents Series)

INTRODUCTION

New Tools—and No Judgments

by Daisy Dowling

Almost all of the working parents I coach have faced, or are facing, certain common challenges—managing their time, finding good care, or dealing with feelings of guilt or conflict, for example. What working parent hasn’t been there? Those things are part and parcel of knitting together children and career.

But many of my clients who are parenting on their own have certain additional concerns, too. As one newly single parent told me, “I have to do a lot of explaining. It’s not that my friends or colleagues aren’t trying to be sensitive or helpful. But they sometimes don’t know what it’s like to be doing the ‘working parent thing’ as one instead of two.” Others describe struggling with building ...