I grew up with five siblings in a single parent home.
My mom did a great job of raising us and learned different ways to get by as a single mom.
She was very creative and found ways to save money so that we could live a comfortable life. She clipped coupons and saved on our groceries, she passed clothing down from sibling to sibling, and she believed in the basics, especially when it came to home appliances. We never had fancy cooling systems in our homes. We lived in a very hot part of the country, but we still made it by. My mom had her ways to keep us very comfortable without the air conditioning units. For example, she always had cold lemonade available for us to drink on hot days. She also always had fans running to keep cool air circulating. Finally, her best trick was that we slept downstairs on the really hot nights. Since heat rises, our second floor was always unbearably hot. It was difficult to sleep comfortably because we would wake up in bad night sweats. On the other hand, the first floor of our house was always cool at night. We would set up blankets on the floor and sleep together. We would stay up late and hang out together. I remember my mom would try to hush us and try to make us sleep, but we were having too much fun. It was like a big sleepover. Those were some of the best childhood memories that my siblings and I share.