001: Welcome to Single Mom Stories

Single Mom Stories with Kelly Travis

**Sorry for the patchy audio on this one. My furry child was chewing a bone and he gets loud for a bit.**

Welcome to the very first episode of Single Mom Stories, a new podcast in which I seek to help single parents feel slightly less alone. Today, I open up the episode with the remark that I don’t have other family members or friends who are single mothers and hope that this podcast will help single mothers feel more connected to one another. Having been divorced for nearly six years, I’ve been a single mom since my children were extremely young, and I know that it’s taught me how to take care of myself, despite dedicating much of my life to my children. We’ll also look at how important storytelling is, and, in that spirit, I’ll share a story from my own life when I found my children playing with a toy mop and toilet water in the hallway. I close out this brief first episode by sharing the types of guests I intend to have on the podcast and reiterate my hope that, as this podcast moves forward, I can bring single moms of all types of backgrounds together.

The Finer Details of this Episode:

• Introduction to Single Mom Stories
• My goal in creating this podcast
• My experience as a single mother
• The importance of sharing stories
• My story of when my kids cleaned the house with toilet water.
• My plans for the future of the podcast and the guests coming your way

Quotes:

“We sit around and chat like we're having coffee or cocktails together. I hope if you're a listener, you feel like you're brought right into these conversations, because the point of this is for all of us to feel less alone – more seen, more connected.”

“I am feeling like I am less alone, because I don't have single mom friends. I don't have family members who are single parents. And so while people can empathize, they don't really know what it's like to be in our shoes.”

“Although it was very stressful to navigate the shift, it was also a really positive thing for me and for my family – it was also incredibly challenging.”

“I love the idea of being able to share stories on here as we converse and just chat, so you're going to hear from moms who are newly solo parents all the way to empty nesters and everything in between. We're going to talk about all the things: you know, the first time you didn't have your kids, the first time you tried to date after being divorced, the feeling of guilt that's associated with being a mom, the sacrifices we make– all of those things that come up as we navigate this journey and this single mom life.”

Links:

Single Mom Stories website

Single Mom Stories Instagram