LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Rushing to get just a few moments of playtime with 4-year-old Landyn before she starts dinner is what Nicole Noghrehkar and more than 13 million parents do everyday solo.
"Managing work and mom life,” Nicole said. “The day doesn’t ever stop."
She’s been on her own for a year. She's in the middle of a divorce. And after her sister died suddenly, she's been helping take care of her 10-year-old niece, Alexis.
"It didn’t hit me until after," Nicole said. "I didn't think about the struggles or what it could entail going into it. But I still wouldn’t change it."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Nicole is typical of who most single parents are. More than 80 percent are mothers.
Single moms are often stereotyped as unemployed, but 76 percent are working with more than half working full time and year round.
Also, most did not have children before marriage as 44 percent are divorced or separated with 37 percent never married.
Galit Ventura-Rozen became a single mother of three after 17 years of marriage.
"I do think there is a little bit of a stigma there,” she said. “Because in all honesty at the end of the day you were supposed to get married and then have children and stay married. And now so many people don’t."
She said finding a support system is vital.
'"Once I started looking I found it," said Galit. " There were other women out there just like me trying to figure out how to do it by themselves.”
She shared the following tips:
-Ask for help
-Reach out to other single parents
-Schedule time for yourself
-Recognize there's no such thing as perfect
“I grew up in a divorced family, so my mom raised three of us single for some time,” Nicole said. “I got a lot of my strength from how she did it back in the day with three kids by herself."
