Solo Parent

This week we're discussing Creating a Stable Home for Our Kids.

The deeper fear most solo parents carry isn't about logistics. It's the worry that the tension, the grief, the moments of emotional checkout just to survive the day, are quietly shaping who their kids are becoming. And underneath that fear lives a question worth asking out loud: is one parent really enough to give a child real stability?

The answer is yes. 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 a single mom herself, work through that question with honesty and care. What creates stability for kids isn't a two-parent household. It's about presence, self-awareness, and the rhythms you build at home.

Solo parents navigating this topic know the weight of it. The pressure to be both mom and dad. The anxiety about what happens in a home you can't control. The struggle to hold routines together when your own emotional reserves are running low.

Key Insights from This Episode:

• One present parent is enough. Your kids don't need a two-parent household to feel secure. They need you, consistently showing up.

• Self-awareness is the foundation. You can't offer emotional stability to your kids if you haven't first done the work of knowing what's happening inside you.

• Routines are how kids learn the world is safe. The rhythms and rituals you build at home aren't just organizational. They are how your kids develop a sense of security.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Love as a Boundary with Dr. Henry Cloud

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This week we're discussing How to Find Stability When Nothing is Stable.

You are holding more than most people will ever see. The bills, the decisions, the late-night worries, the questions your kids ask that you don't have answers to. And somewhere underneath all the managing and the doing is a feeling that doesn't have a clean name: a low-grade unsteadiness, like the ground beneath you is just slightly off.

Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, joins 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 what it actually takes to feel grounded when life keeps shifting. Amber brings both clinical insight and personal experience to the table, speaking not just as a therapist but as someone who has navigated the same uncertainty solo parents know well.

This conversation gets honest about what actually sits at the center of why stability feels so out of reach for solo parents.

Unprocessed grief quietly blocks forward motion, keeping you stuck between the life you lost and the one you're trying to build. The instinct to stay busy or numb out works against you, pushing away the very stillness that restores steadiness. And when a real, pressing crisis lands with no partner to call on, knowing how to take one grounded step forward can make all the difference.

• Naming what you're carrying is the first step toward putting it down. Unprocessed grief doesn't disappear when ignored; it becomes the weight that quietly keeps you from building what's next.
• Inner stability is built by plugging back into a grounding source, not by solving everything at once. Whether it's prayer, stillness, or a simple morning ritual, returning to something steady is what keeps you anchored.
• Small, repeatable anchors create the predictability that stability is actually made of. You don't need to fix everything; you need a few things you can count on, and the courage to ask for help when the problem is bigger than you.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Atomic Habits by James Clear

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• Download our Solo Parent App
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This week we're discussing Quality Time with Your Kids as a Single Parent

You were there. Physically on the floor, in the room, at the table. And yet somewhere between the Legos and the dinner cleanup, you realized your mind had been somewhere else the entire time. That feeling, of showing up but not quite arriving, is one of the hardest parts of solo parenting to talk about because it carries so much guilt with it.

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 (MMFT) and single parent, to get honest about why real connection with your kids can feel so hard to access, and what it actually takes to close that gap without overhauling your life.

This conversation names the pressures most solo parents feel but rarely say out loud. Feeling physically present with your kids but emotionally somewhere else entirely, and not knowing how to fix it. Believing quality time has to look a certain way, and carrying the weight of falling short of that picture. Not knowing how to build genuine connection when your schedule, your energy, and your emotional reserves are all running low. If any of that sounds familiar, this one is worth your time.

• Emotional capacity, not a packed schedule, is what gets in the way of real presence. The emotional weight of solo parenting can quietly drain the reserves you need to actually show up for your kids.
• Quality time isn't about the activity, it's about your kids knowing they matter to you. When your children feel seen, safe, and loved, that connection becomes the secure base they spring from into the rest of their lives.
• Micro moments and small rituals already inside your routine are enough. You don't need a bigger schedule or a better plan; you need to recognize the connection opportunities you're already walking past every day.

• CNBC Article: I've studies over 200 kids - the happiest ones have parents who do 9 things with them every morning
• Chip Dodd: Concept of "home base" can be found in his book "Voice of the Heart"
• Dan Siegel: The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
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This week we're discussing The One Parenting Skill That Changes Everything.

There are nights when you replay the whole day. The sharp word before school. The moment you lost patience and immediately wished you could take it back. As a solo parent, guilt settles in fast. It sits with you through dinner, through bedtime, through the quiet after the kids are asleep. You wonder if the damage is already done.

But what if the thing you're most afraid of admitting is actually the very thing that could change everything? 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, to talk honestly about repair: what it is, what gets in the way, and how to actually do it.

This conversation gets honest about something most solo parents feel but rarely say out loud. The guilt from past mistakes can sit for a long time when you don't know where to begin. Shame, survival mode, and never having seen repair modeled growing up all make it harder. And even when the desire is there, knowing what to actually do in the moment is its own challenge.

• Repair is one of the most powerful gifts you can give your child. When a parent owns a mistake, it builds trust, validates a child's feelings, and shows them that being human is not something to be ashamed of.
• Toxic shame, lack of modeling, and the pace of solo life are the biggest barriers to repair. Naming what gets in the way is the first step toward not letting it stay in the way.
• Real repair follows four steps: Admit, Acknowledge, Accept responsibility and Apologize, and Act differently. Words begin the process, but changed behavior over time is what makes repair real.

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
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This week we're discussing Growing Up with a Solo Parent.

One of the heaviest things a solo parent carries is not a task or a bill or a hard conversation. It is a question. The one that surfaces when the house is finally quiet and you have a moment to think. You wonder whether the circumstances your kids are growing up in, the things they are missing, the instability, the absence, the gaps you cannot fill on your own, will cost them something down the road that no amount of love can make up for.

Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, and Elizabeth Cole, single parent, sit down with Andy Marshall, entrepreneur, Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame inductee, and candidate for Williamson County Mayor. Andy's childhood was marked by instability, abuse, and loss. The odds were stacked against him in every direction. What he became anyway is worth paying attention to, not because his story wraps up neatly, but because of what it reveals about resilience, community, and the quiet ways God can work through even the most broken circumstances.

For solo parents carrying the weight of what their kids might be missing, this conversation offers something more useful than reassurance. It offers perspective.

Key Insights from This Episode:

• Children are shaped not only by what they have at home but by the people outside it who choose to see them. The adults who showed up consistently for Andy, coaches, neighbors, volunteers, quietly rebuilt what his home life was tearing down.
• Routine and predictability are not just practical tools. For kids in unstable homes, the simple consistency of a meal time or a homework check can feel like the first real safety they have known.
• A hard childhood does not have to become a tragic story. In the right hands, and with even one person who believes in you, the pressure and the struggle can become the very thing that builds something lasting.

Nobody gets through a childhood like Andy's unscathed. But he closed by saying he doesn't look back on his life as a tragedy. He looks back on all the ways God placed people in his path to get him exactly where he was meant to be. That is something worth holding onto.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• A. Marshall Hospitality
• Andy Marshall
• Boys and Girls Club

Stay Connected + Get Support:

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This week we're discussing Co-Parenting with Purpose

Co-parenting can bring out some of the hardest moments in this whole solo parent journey. You are trying to raise kids alongside someone you may still be hurt by, and the stakes feel enormous because they are. In this conversation, Robert Beeson, Founder and CEO of Solo Parent, and Elizabeth Cole, single parent, sit down with Traci Koster, a family law attorney, Florida state legislator, single mom, and co-founder of Tampa Bay Pro Bono Partners, to talk honestly about what collaborative co-parenting actually looks like in real life, not just in theory.

Traci has lived this from both sides of the table. She knows the research, she knows the law, and she knows what it costs personally to keep showing up with intention when it would be easier not to. This conversation is full of practical wisdom and the kind of honest, imperfect storytelling that makes you feel less alone.

A lot of solo parents want to co-parent well but are not sure how to get there, especially when the other person is not always meeting them halfway. These three areas are where the real work lives.

Today, we cover three main points:

• Keeping kids out of the conflict takes more than staying quiet. It means actively building the other parent up, using a consistent mantra when kids try to play messenger, and being honest with yourself when your own insecurities are driving the reaction.
• Avoiding negative talk is only half the work. Children's identities are shaped by both parents, and when you speak poorly about your co-parent, your kids absorb that as something said about themselves.
• Stability comes from intention, not perfection. Whether it is the language you use around both homes, the way you handle belongings, or the moments when you show up somewhere uncomfortable for your kids' sake, small consistent choices create the sense of belonging your children need.

Nobody gets this right every time. Traci does not claim to. But returning to the same intention, of keeping your kids at the center, is what makes the difference over time. That is something every solo parent can build toward.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Traci Koster, family law attorney and Florida state legislator
• Tampa Bay Pro Bono Partners (co-founded by Traci Koster)

Stay Connected + Get Support:

• Download our Solo Parent App
• Join a Solo Parent Online Group
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This week we're discussing Raising Healthy Kids When You're Doing It Alone.

Solo parenting means making every call yourself. Every hard conversation, every boundary, every moment you are not sure you handled it right. And somewhere underneath all of that doing is a fear that rarely gets spoken: what if the way I am showing up is actually hurting them?

That question deserves a real conversation. 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, to get honest about what healthy parenting actually looks like when you are the only one holding it all together.

This episode speaks directly to the fears most solo parents carry quietly. Three specific tensions come up that are worth naming: parenting from fear instead of awareness and not knowing the difference, carrying unhealed pain that spills over onto your kids without realizing it, and trying to figure it all out alone when perspective is exactly what you need.

If you have felt any of those, this one is for you.

Key Insights from This Episode:

• Your internal world shapes your parenting more than you realize. The fear, stress, and unprocessed pain you carry does not stay contained; it finds its way into how you parent every day.
• The five Rs of stability give solo parents a practical framework for raising healthy kids. Respect, Relationships, Rules, Responsibility, and Risk each play a distinct role in building security and resilience for you and your kids.
• Blind spots don't fix themselves. Getting curious, asking questions, and inviting perspective from trusted people around you is one of the most courageous moves you can make as a parent.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Henry Cloud - Love as a Boundary - Solo Parent Podcast

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This week we're discussing Loving Our Inner Child

Even when you are doing your best as a parent, old reactions keep surfacing. You respond bigger than the moment calls for. Patterns you thought you had outgrown show back up. In this conversation, Robert Beeson, Founder & CEO of Solo Parent, and Elizabeth Cole, single parent, sit down with Michelle Chalfant, licensed therapist, holistic life coach, and author of The Adult Chair, to talk about the inner child, what it is, why it still shapes your daily life, and how doing this work can bring more peace to you and your home.

A lot of solo parents are trying so hard to show up well, but underneath the effort are old beliefs quietly running the show. Harsh self-talk, disproportionate reactions, triggers that seem to come out of nowhere. These things matter because they do not just affect you. They shape the environment your kids grow up in. Understanding where they come from is the first step to changing them.

Today, we cover three main points:

• The inner child is not a concept. It is a part of you. From birth to about age six, we form a roadmap of beliefs about ourselves and the world. That roadmap does not disappear when we grow up. It keeps running in the background, shaping how we parent, how we respond, and what we believe we deserve. The good news is it can be updated.
• Triggers are gifts in disguise. When something sets you off, it is not really about what just happened. It is a belief from early childhood rising to the surface. Michelle walks through a practical process for following that trigger all the way down to its root, transforming it, and climbing back up with something new and true in its place.
• Reparenting your inner child does not take hours. Consistency matters more than duration. A two-minute check-in, a quiet question, a moment of gentleness toward the younger version of yourself. These small acts begin to repair old wounds and slowly change the patterns you bring into your parenting.

This work is not about going back and reliving the past. It is about finally giving that younger part of you what it needed, so the adult you are today has more room to breathe, more steadiness to offer, and more peace to pass on.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Michelle Chalfant: The Adult Chair
• The Adult Chair by Michelle Chalfant
• Free inner child guided meditations and journaling prompts: theadultchair.com/innerchild
• The Michelle Chalfant Show podcast
• Metamorphosis Live Event (Charlotte, NC) — use code SOLO for $200 off: theadultchair.com/liveevent
• The Adult Chair Inner Child Course: theadultchair.com

Stay Connected + Get Support:

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This week we're discussing Even If: Trusting God Through the Fire

Life as a solo parent rarely feels clean or compartmentalized. You can be deeply grateful for your kids and still feel overwhelmed. You can trust God and still feel disappointed. You can be functioning on the outside while quietly unraveling on the inside. In this episode, Robert Beeson, Founder & CEO of Solo Parent, and Elizabeth Cole, single parent, sit down with Bart Millard, lead singer of MercyMe and songwriter behind the multi-platinum hit "I Can Only Imagine," along with Shannon Millard, co-author of Even If: Trusting God Through the Fire. Together, they talk about chronic hardship, depression, loss, and what it looks like to keep showing up when healing does not happen the way you hoped.

Many solo parents wrestle with silent comparisons, believing they should not complain because someone else has it worse. Others feel emotionally absent but do not know how they got there. Some carry disappointment with God but feel afraid to say it out loud. These struggles matter because unspoken grief turns into isolation, and isolation quietly drains your strength, your presence, and your hope.

In This Episode, We Focus On:

• Gratitude and grief can coexist - You do not have to choose between being thankful and being honest about what hurts. Gratitude does not cancel grief. Both can live in the same space, and naming that tension is part of healing.
• Healing begins when you say it out loud - Isolation keeps pain powerful. Whether through counseling, community, or one trusted friend, speaking your struggle breaks shame and reminds you that you are not alone.
• Presence matters more than perfection - Your children do not need flawless. They need your willingness to return, repair, and keep showing up. Consistent presence builds safety and trust over time.

Holding grief and gratitude together is not about pretending everything is fine. It is about staying engaged in your life and your parenting even when it feels messy. You are not weak for struggling, and you do not have to walk this road alone.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Even If: Trusting God Through the Fire by Bart and Shannon Millard
• I Can Only Imagine 2
• "Even If"
• "Make It Well"
• Porter's Call

Stay Connected + Get Support:

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This week we're discussing Love as a Boundary

Setting boundaries can feel especially difficult when you are a solo parent. You are carrying more, managing more emotions, and often trying to protect your children from further pain. In this conversation, Robert Beeson, Founder & CEO of Solo Parent, and Elizabeth Cole, single parent, are joined by Dr. Henry Cloud, clinical psychologist, leadership expert, and bestselling author of Boundaries, to talk about how healthy limits actually strengthen relationships, protect your peace, and help your children grow.

Many solo parents wrestle with the same tensions. Saying yes out of guilt. Overcompensating for what their kids have been through. Feeling exhausted but unsure how to change long-standing patterns. These struggles matter because without boundaries, burnout, resentment, and chaos slowly replace the calm and stability every family needs.

Today, we cover three main points:

• Why boundaries are not selfish Boundaries define where you end and someone else begins. When you protect your time, energy, and emotional health, you are not choosing yourself over others. You are creating the capacity to love well and consistently.
• Why love requires limits Love without structure often leads to resentment or enabling. Healthy limits protect relationships and allow generosity and connection to flourish in a sustainable way.
• Why boundaries help children grow Children need loving limits to develop responsibility, emotional regulation, and respect for others. What feels hard in the moment often prepares them for a healthier future.

Healthy boundaries are not about controlling others. They are about taking responsibility for what is yours and building a home where both you and your children can thrive.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Dr. Henry Cloud

• Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
• Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud

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