Solo Parent

This week we're discussing Courage to Let Your Kids See You Struggle.

Somewhere along the way, most solo parents develop a kind of silent rule: handle the hard things before you walk into the room. Clean up before they see you. Keep your voice steady even when your heart isn't. It comes from love. But it also comes from fear, and it's worth asking whether the wall you've built to protect them might also be keeping them from something they really need.

Robert Beeson, Founder & CEO of Solo Parent, Elizabeth Cole, single parent, and Amber Fuller, a counselor with a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy (MMFT) and single parent, take a close and honest look at something every solo parent wrestles with: how much of your struggle do you actually let your kids see? They get practical, they get real, and they name the difference between protecting your kids and isolating them from a version of you that could actually draw you closer.

Key Insights from this episode:

• Struggle is something you can model, not just survive - Kids learn resilience by watching adults navigate hard things, not by watching them perform composure.
• The space between hiding and dumping is where real connection lives - Honest, age-appropriate moments, done without making your kids responsible for what you're carrying, teach them how to handle hard things too.
• Vulnerability, done with intention, builds the trust that nothing else can - When you let them in a little, they let you in too, and that mutual trust becomes the foundation of a relationship that holds.

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're discussing Courage to Ask for Help.

Asking for help is something most solo parents will tell you they're working on, and almost none of them will tell you they've figured out. It's not just pride, though that's part of it. It's the fear of being a burden, the mental math of what you might owe someone, the exhaustion of having to explain your situation one more time, and the quiet identity that gets built around being the one who handles everything. This episode goes right at that tension and hopefully stays there long enough for something to shift.

Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, Elizabeth Cole, a single parent, and Amber Fuller, a counselor with a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy and single parent, bring their own stories to this conversation. None of them have this perfectly figured out either, which is exactly what makes it worth listening to.

Key Insights from this episode:

• Refusing help has a hidden cost that shows up in your kids. The stress of carrying everything alone doesn't stay contained to you. It moves through you and lands on the moments and the people closest to you.
• Accepting help is an act of honor, not weakness. When you say yes to someone who wants to help, you're telling them their generosity matters and their presence in your life counts.
• Building the muscle starts with a list and a yes. Identify what you can offload, write down five people you trust, and practice saying yes, thank you without the explanation attached.

Resources Mentioned in this episode:

Brené Brown reference on shame and vulnerability

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're discussing Courage to Set a Boundary:

Most solo parents aren't avoiding boundaries because they don't care. They're avoiding them because the relationships that need the boundaries are also the ones they depend on most. The co-parent they need to cooperate with. The family member their kid loves. The boss they can't afford to lose. And so the line goes undrawn, the cost gets absorbed, and somewhere along the way you stop noticing how much it's taking from you.

Robert Beeson, Founder & CEO of Solo Parent, sits down with Elizabeth Cole, single parent, and Marissa Lee, author and single parent, and each of them brings a real situation to the table. Not a theoretical one. Elizabeth's summer this year was derailed by a boundary she didn't set early enough. Marissa learned the hard way what years of staying silent actually costs. Robert found out that shutting everyone out isn't the same thing as having boundaries. What comes out of it is practical, honest, and closer to home than most of us would like to admit.

Key Insights from This Episode:

• Setting boundaries starts with two honest questions: What do I feel, and what do I need? These two questions cut through the noise and give you the language for what a boundary actually needs to look like — not in theory, but in the specific situation in front of you.
• Fear and wisdom can lead to the same action, but only one of them will hold. A boundary set from panic or exhaustion tends to swing to extremes. One set from an honest assessment of what you're protecting tends to stick. Knowing which one you're operating from changes everything.
• Courage in boundary-setting doesn't always look like a hard conversation — sometimes it's a quiet internal decision. Especially in volatile co-parenting situations, the most powerful move is often the one nobody else sees. Deciding what you won't engage with, what you won't say, what you won't let go further. That's a boundary too.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Chip Dodd, therapist and author
• Sissy Goff, counselor
• Marissa Lee, Becoming Mom and Dad: How God Fathers Through Single Mothers

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're discussing Helping Our Kids Have Courage.

Every solo parent has felt it — that pull to step in when your kid is struggling. Maybe they're nervous about something new, or stuck in a situation they don't know how to handle, and everything in you wants to smooth it over. It makes sense. Your kids have already been through more than you ever wanted for them, and the last thing you want is to pile on more difficulty. But there's a gap between protecting your kids and equipping them, and most of us don't realize how wide that gap has gotten until we look up one day and wonder why our kids struggle to handle the smallest uncomfortable moments on their own.

Robert Beeson, Founder & CEO of Solo Parent, Elizabeth Cole, single parent, and Amber Fuller, a counselor with a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy (MMFT) and single parent, get practical about what it actually takes to raise kids who can face hard things. The conversation is honest, relatable, and full of the kind of insight that makes you rethink some of your default parenting moves — not out of guilt, but out of genuine hope for what your kids are capable of.

Key Insights from this episode:

• Struggle builds the muscles your kids need to handle real life — Repeatedly rescuing your kids from discomfort doesn't make them feel safer. Research shows it actually increases anxiety, quietly sending the message that hard things are too much for them.
• Being with your child in hard moments is different from doing it for them — Presence and rescue are not the same thing. Staying close while your child does something hard communicates trust in a way that stepping in never can.
• Courage is a practice, and you can build it into everyday family rhythms — From the question you ask at the end of the day to the small social risks you encourage at school, courage gets built in ordinary moments long before the big ones arrive.

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're discussing Courage to Step Into the Unknown.

Every solo parent knows what it's like to feel the weight of not knowing what comes next. Whether it's a financial decision you're unsure about, a parenting situation without a clear answer, or a future that looks nothing like you planned - uncertainty is one of the most constant companions in this season. And most of us, without realizing it, have developed ways of coping that feel responsible but quietly make things harder.

Robert Beeson, Founder & CEO of Solo Parent, and Amber Fuller, a counselor with a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy (MMFT) and single parent, get honest about the psychology behind why uncertainty feels so threatening - and what it actually looks like to face the unknown with steadiness instead of fear. The conversation is personal, grounded, and gives you something real to take into the week.

Key Insights from This Episode:

• When Fear Is Driving, Even Good Instincts Can Work Against You - the two most common responses to uncertainty make complete sense, but they don't deliver the security we're looking for.
• Curiosity and Wonder Are the Path to Peace in the Unknown - loosening your grip isn't giving up; it's where peace actually lives.
• The Goal Is the Step, Not the Outcome - you don't need to see the whole path, just the next move forward.

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're talking about, What to Do When Your Child Pushes Your Buttons.

Your child says something that lands hard, or they shut down completely and the silence fills every corner of the house. You hold it together in the moment, but later, when everything is quiet, you replay it. You wonder if you handled it right. You wonder if the relationship is okay. And you do all of that alone, without anyone to help you sort through it.

The hard truth is that solo parenting doesn't give you a timeout from the hardest parenting moments. There's no one to tap in, no one to debrief with, and no one to remind you that you're not failing just because your kid is furious with you right now.

Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, and Elizabeth Cole, a single parent navigating this in real time, sit down with Amber Fuller, a counselor with a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy and single parent, to talk through what's really happening when your child pushes back, and what it actually looks like to stay grounded, hold your position, and keep the relationship intact at the same time.

Key Insights from This Episode:

• Your child's anger is often a signal, not an attack. When kids rage or shut down, they're usually communicating fear, loss, or a need for control they don't yet have words for.
• Staying emotionally regulated isn't about suppressing your feelings. It's about being the stable presence your child needs when their own emotions are running the show.
• Framing your child's pushback as a form of trust changes how you receive it. They push hardest at the people they believe won't leave.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• The Emotional Lives of Teenagers by Lisa Damour
• The Whole Brain Child by Dr. Dan Siegel

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're discussing Why Do I Feel Like Damaged Goods?

Most of us don't walk around calling ourselves damaged. But the belief shows up anyway. In the way you brace before getting close to someone. In the quiet assumption that what happened to you says something permanent about who you are. Whether it came from loss, from words spoken over you in a hard season, from a relationship that ended badly or one that never got to begin, the feeling has a way of becoming identity before you even realize it happened.

Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, sits down with Elizabeth Cole, single parent and co-host, and Amber Fuller, a counselor with a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy and single parent herself, for an honest conversation about why so many solo parents carry a private belief that they are somehow less than. Less worthy of connection. Less capable of being loved well. And what it actually looks like to start believing something different - not through willpower, but through the right people and the right environments.

Key Insights from This Episode:

• The "damaged goods" feeling has company. Virtually every solo parent carries some version of this, and naming that out loud is the first thing that starts to shift it.
• The broken mirror wasn't you. The voices that told you something was wrong with you came from somewhere - and that source matters more than you think.
• Shame doesn't heal in isolation. Getting into environments where someone else says "me too" does something that self-help and positive thinking simply can't.

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're discussing How to Build a Core Community.

You know you need people. You've felt it, probably more in the last season of your life than ever before. But needing community and knowing how to build it are two very different things. It's easy to look around and feel like everyone else has their people figured out, while you're still trying to work out where you even fit. Whether you're starting over after loss or divorce, navigating an unplanned pregnancy, or simply realizing the friendships you had don't quite hold the shape of your life anymore, that ache of not having a solid crew around you is real. And it matters.

Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, sits down with Elizabeth Cole, single parent, and Amber Fuller, a counselor with a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy (MMFT) and single parent, to talk honestly about what it takes to build community that actually holds. No guest this week, just three people who've lived it, comparing notes on what worked, what didn't, and what they'd tell their earlier selves about finding the right people.

Key Insights from This Episode:

• Build a patchwork of people, not a single lifeline. Spreading your needs across multiple relationships is what keeps community sustainable for everyone.
• When people pull away, it's usually discomfort, not cruelty. Most people don't know how to stay present in someone else's pain, and that's different from not caring.
• Giving is what turns a group of people into actual community. Showing up for others, even in small ways, is what creates the kind of belonging you're looking for.

And if you want to keep the conversation going, Robert, Elizabeth, and Amber are going live on July 19th at 7:00 PM Central to tackle another big community question: can men and women really just be friends? Head to soloparent.org/safepeople to save your spot.

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're discussing Who Are Safe People?.

When you're parenting on your own, the question of who to trust carries a lot of weight. You want connection. You need it. But after being hurt or let down, it's hard to know how much to share, how fast to move, or whether your read on someone is accurate or just wishful thinking. Most of us have let someone in before they'd really earned it. And most of us have paid for that in some way.

In this episode, Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, sits down with Elizabeth Cole, single parent, and Amber Fuller, a counselor with a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy and single parent, to talk through what it actually looks like to identify safe people, build trust slowly, and become the kind of person others can feel safe with too.

• Trust is built by reliability over time, not first impressions. Watching someone show up consistently across different situations is the only real way to know if they're safe.
• Loneliness and exhaustion lower your guard, and that's not a flaw, it's human. Understanding what's driving your need for connection helps you move toward people thoughtfully rather than reactively.
• To find safe people, you have to become one. Developing your own capacity for safety, presence without judgment, reliability, and the ability to make repair, is what makes you able to recognize it in others.

Whether you're navigating new friendships, dating, or even professional relationships, the challenges single parents face around trust are real and specific. This conversation addresses some of the most common ones.

Join Us Live:

We're continuing this conversation in a free live webinar on Sunday, July 19th at 7:00 PM Central. The topic: Can men and women really just be friends? Register here: soloparent.org/safepeople.

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram

This week we're discussing From Numbing Out to Living Fully.

The end of the day hits differently when you are parenting alone. The kids are down, the house is finally quiet, and instead of feeling relief, there is this hollow weight that settles in. So you reach for something, anything, to take the edge off. A drink, a show, a scroll, something sweet. It does not feel like a problem. It feels like survival. But over time, the things you are leaning on to get through the day start quietly working against you, leaving you more exhausted, more disconnected, and further from the version of yourself you actually want to be.

Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, and Elizabeth Cole, single parent and co-host, sit down with Katrina Morriss, a licensed mental health nurse practitioner and single mom who has been part of the Solo Parent community since 2020. Katrina's story is not a tidy before-and-after. It is raw, honest, and the kind of account that makes you feel less alone in your own struggle. Together they walk through what it looks like to recognize the cycle, face the fear of what is on the other side of it, and find your way back to the moments that matter most.

• Numbing and restoring are not the same thing. What feels like relief at the end of a hard day may actually be the thing keeping you stuck in exhaustion.
• The known hell feels safer than the unknown heaven. Fear of what healing requires keeps more solo parents in the cycle than the pain of staying in it.
• Presence for your kids is the fuel, not just the goal. The unregrettable moments with your children are what make the hard work of recovery worth sustaining.

• The Voice of the Heart by Chip Dodd
• Tony Evans Podcast

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Group
• Learn more about Solo Parent
• Follow us on Instagram