Why Every Single Parent Should Be A Minimalist

Posted on | September 4, 2010 | 3 Comments

Being a single parent can really suck. You have to single-handedly care and provide for yourself and your children. You become mother, father, breadwinner and a host of other titles rolled up into one exhausted package. If you’ve really got it interesting, you will also have an ex or two harassing you at every corner or taking you to court every chance they get!

Adopting a minimalist lifestyle can help single parents in several ways:

As a minimalist you won’t need to make as much money, so you will be able to be home more with your children.

Your children will be with you instead of someone else because you won’t have to work as hard or as many hours. You may be able to get a minimalist business up and running and stay at home full time!

When I first left my husband I ended up having to work 4 jobs just to make ends meet: My days were spent working at a restaurant, nights repairing computers for my home-based business, unscheduled nights were spent working with a cleaning crew cleaning banks and day care centers and my “days off” were spent either working on computers, on cleaning jobs or doing paperwork for a drywall company.  My kids didn’t see me unless I arranged to take them on computer jobs, and I did take the older ones whenever I could just to spend time with them while I worked.

There are so many single parents out there living this exact same life that I lived, and I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to! When you stop buying so much crap the money you need to earn plummets. Your kids will be so happy that you are home spending time with them they will start following the minimalist path and will tell you over and over how much they love spending time with you!

A minimalist single parent won’t be forced to enter into a relationship for financial reasons.

You can tell me this doesn’t happen, and I can tell you it is bullshit. I’ve seen and met so many single mothers who freak out when their boyfriends leave them because they don’t make enough money to pay the bills on their paycheck alone. They immediately start hitting the bars and getting their friends to hook them up because the bills are due and they need a man to help pay them.

Ladies, I’m here to tell you that this path is no different than the prostitutes I see standing on the street corners. Guys have gotten to the point where they think that if they wave some money in a single mother’s face she will bend over backwards to give him sex or whatever else he wants just so they can pay the bills.

I’m at a financial point in my life where I can tell these losers to take a hike, because I can pay my own bills, and you can be too! If I were not a minimalist, however, I would literally be screwed. We don’t have a television, a VCR, a DVD player, stereos, game machines and a lot of other things that are considered “essentials” in this world–and we don’t miss them! Instead we use our computers to do these duties, saving tons of money as a result.

This freedom allows me to pick and choose the men I decide to go out with, and if we don’t hit it off, it is no big deal because I am taking care of myself.

I am referring to females out of habit because I am one, but this applies to the guys, too. There are guys who are desperate to have women in their lives so that the girlfriends can babysit, but with a minimalist lifestyle you could possibly work at home and eliminate childcare expense entirely, as well as the disease risk of hopping from woman to woman just to get free babysitting.

A minimalist single parent will have less housework.

There is less stuff in a minimalist household, and that equates to less time cleaning. If you only keep a week’s worth of clothing for you and your family, you won’t have mountains of it to swim through on laundry day. The kids will be less tempted to hide dirty clothing under the bed because they won’t have a surplus, the toys they have will be ones they actually play with, and YOU can relax and enjoy your time with them instead of doing mountains of laundry, dusting shelves full of tchotchkes or washing piles of dirty dishes.

A minimalist single parent will have less to care for and maintain.

If you have less, there is less to break down. Dishwashers break down, but any person with two good arms can wash a cup or a glass. Cars break down, but bicycles are forever. Houses, mowers, stereos, televisions–even blenders and mixers–it all breaks down and will need to be repaired or replaced. Every single thing like this you toss eliminates another hassle and expense, freeing up your time and money for what is really important–your kids.

Every single parent should be a minimalist. Reducing your needs, wants and possessions to a bare minimum teaches your kids to respect what is important in life, and shows them that you love them enough to do without all the frills to spend time with them.  It shows your kid that you don’t have to sell your body and soul to pay for stuff, that you have the respect and pride to take care of yourself and live within your means.

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