There are plenty of articles out there about the difficult bits of being a single parent. The financial pressure. The logistics. The mental load. The particular horror of realising at 9pm that tomorrow is World Book Day and there is nobody else in the house you can blame. Those things are real, and it matters that we talk about them. Single parents are more likely to face financial hardship, childcare can make work incredibly difficult, and doing the practical and emotional work of parenting without another adult in the house can be exhausting.

But that isn’t the whole story.

Recently, we asked the Frolo community a very simple question: What’s something you love about being a single parent? And the answers were a brilliant reminder that single-parent family life isn't simply a lesser version of a two-parent household. There are things about raising children on your own that can be liberating, joyful and incredibly rewarding.

So, in the interests of giving those things their moment too, here are some of the things we think single parents should absolutely embrace.

The freedom to create a family life that works for you

One of the most common themes when single parents talk about the positives is freedom. There’s no negotiating over what you’re doing at the weekend. No arguing about whether you should go away, spend Saturday in your pyjamas or eat beans on toast for dinner. No asking another adult whether they mind if you take the kids somewhere.

As one parent told us:

“Not having to ask permission to travel or homeschool or what we’re doing for the weekend.”

Another described loving having “no one to answer to apart from yourself and your kids”, adding: “I love that we can just decide to go on an adventure and just go do it.”

Of course, freedom looks different if you’re co-parenting and need to coordinate schedules with another parent. But within your own home and your own parenting time, there can still be something wonderfully liberating about getting to establish your own rhythms, traditions and priorities. You get to decide what matters in your family. And that can be a very lovely thing.

A calmer home

If becoming a single parent means leaving an unhappy or conflict-filled relationship, one of the biggest changes can simply be the atmosphere at home.

One Frolo follower put it beautifully:

“It’s way more relaxed than having a partner and I have time and space in my brain for more creative things!”

That space matters.

Living with tension, resentment or constant disagreement can take up an enormous amount of emotional energy. Once that disappears, you may suddenly notice that your home feels lighter. You might have more patience with your children. You might rediscover hobbies and interests that had been pushed aside. You might simply enjoy being in your own house again.

Single parenting can be tiring, certainly. But being the only adult in a home isn't necessarily more exhausting than living with another adult who creates additional work, stress or unhappiness. Sometimes one adult really is easier than two.

Getting to parent your way

Screen time. Bedtimes. Pocket money. Homework. Food. Discipline. What counts as an acceptable amount of mud to bring into the house. Parenting involves approximately four million tiny decisions, and parenting with somebody else means potentially negotiating every one of them.

One of the underrated pleasures of single parenting is being able to decide what works for your children and your household without having to continually compromise with another adult. That doesn't mean you never doubt yourself. In fact, making all the decisions can sometimes feel like a huge responsibility. But it can also build confidence.

Over time, you learn to trust your judgement. You discover which battles actually matter to you and which really don't. Your family develops its own way of doing things. There’s something powerful in realising: I can do this. I know my children. I know what works for us.

The relationship you build with your children

Single parenting can create a particular kind of closeness. You’re a team. You develop your own jokes, routines, rituals and shorthand. You know who takes forever to put their shoes on and who needs five minutes of quiet after school. You have the Saturday morning thing you always do and the dinner everybody requests when they’ve had a bad day.

One parent answering our question simply said:

“My amazing son. Being a solo parent has been the adventure of a lifetime.”

Another highlighted the value of being able to provide “consistency for my child”.

It’s easy when talking about single-parent families to focus on what children supposedly don't have. But children can gain things too: a close relationship with their parent, a strong sense of teamwork and a home where the expectations, boundaries and routines are clear.

The fierce sense of achievement

One parent summed this up in five words:

“A fierce sense of achievement.”

And yes. Absolutely this. There are moments in single parenting when you look around and realise that you did this.

You got everyone where they needed to be. You remembered the PE kit. You made Christmas happen. You dealt with the 2am temperature and still got everybody through the following day. You planned the holiday, packed the bags, navigated the airport and got everybody home again. You sorted the school application, the birthday cake, the broken washing machine and the inexplicable Year 4 request for six empty yoghurt pots.

Not necessarily gracefully. Not necessarily without swearing. But you did it. Single parents shouldn't have to be endlessly resilient. We need affordable childcare, flexible employers, decent financial support and communities that make family life easier. But that doesn't mean you can't occasionally stand back and feel extremely proud of everything you've managed.

Not having to manage another adult

This one came through loud and clear in our community responses.

As one single parent rather magnificently put it:

“My favourite thing about being a single parent is not having some musty, crusty man-child around my house that adds to the mess but ‘doesn't notice it’.”

She went on to say that her resentment and bitterness had reduced significantly – and therefore, she joked, so had her wrinkles. Not every relationship is like this, obviously. Plenty of couples share domestic and emotional labour brilliantly.

But research has repeatedly shown that women continue to do a disproportionate amount of unpaid childcare and housework, even when both partners are working. For some people, becoming a single parent means discovering that although there is now only one adult to do the work, there is also one fewer adult creating it.

There’s nobody else's laundry on the floor. Nobody asking where something is without looking for it first. Nobody waiting to be delegated a task before noticing it needs doing. And yes, you are allowed to enjoy that.

Discovering who you are outside a relationship

Becoming a single parent can be an enormous identity shift, particularly after a long relationship. At first, that can feel unsettling. Who are you now? What do you like? What do you want your weekends, home, friendships and future to look like? But that uncertainty can gradually become possibility.

You might discover you like travelling alone with your children. You might start exercising, studying, dating, changing careers or doing absolutely nothing on a Sunday afternoon without having to justify it to anybody. You can make decisions based on what works for you and your children rather than constantly factoring another adult into the equation.

That doesn't mean relationships are bad or independence is inherently better. It simply means that being single can give you an opportunity to get to know yourself again.

The traditions that are completely yours

Family traditions don't have to be inherited from a conventional family set-up. Perhaps Friday night is takeaway-and-film night. Perhaps you go camping every summer. Perhaps birthdays always involve pancakes. Perhaps Christmas morning starts at 5.47am with chocolate and absolutely nobody is allowed to object.

One of the joys of being a single-parent family is creating your own culture. Your children may grow up remembering the ridiculous songs you sang in the car, your annual holiday spot, the meal you always cooked on Sundays or the way everyone piled into your bed on Saturday mornings.

Those are the things that make a childhood feel like their childhood. And you created them.

Showing your children there isn't only one way to be a family

Families come in all sorts of shapes. Some have one parent at home. Some have two. Some have step-parents, half-siblings, grandparents, co-parents, donors, foster parents, friends and extended families woven into them in all sorts of ways.

Growing up in a single-parent household can teach children something valuable: that a family isn't defined by having a particular combination of adults under one roof. It's defined by the relationships inside it. You don't need to recreate a traditional family structure to give your children a happy family life. You get to build the family that works for you.

Being able to enjoy the good bits without qualifying them

Perhaps this is the one we need to practise most.

You can acknowledge that single parenting is difficult and love parts of it.

You can wish childcare was easier and still love having your children to yourself at the weekend.

You can worry about money and adore the freedom of running your own household.

You can sometimes desperately want somebody else to take over and, at other times, feel incredibly grateful that nobody else gets a vote.

As single parents, we're often encouraged to frame our experiences through struggle, sacrifice and resilience. Those conversations matter, especially when they expose inequalities that need to change.

But single-parent life contains joy too. There can be freedom. Peace. Adventure. Closeness. Confidence. Pride. There can be a home that finally feels like yours and a family life built around the people who actually live it. Those things don't cancel out the difficult bits. They're simply worth celebrating too.

What do you love about being a single parent?

Join the conversation with thousands of other single parents on the Frolo app. Whether you want friendship, advice, support or simply people who understand the peculiar joy of being the only adult who gets a say in what’s for dinner, you’ll find your community there.

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