it freezes your already cold mind

I was at the fish and chips place yesterday getting a poutine to share with the kids. The fish and chip shop is two doors away from my house, they watched my house being built, they see the kids coming and going. They get to know us as we, in turn, get to know them.
So, the poutine. A yummy, heart-clogging, mass of french fries, cheese curds and gravy. A canadian, french-canadian, thing i am told. Whatever it is we enjoy it.
The woman who owns it was asking me if i work nights or days.
"nights." i said.
"That's nice, you get to spend the day with the kids and then dad steps in and does dinner and puts them to bed."
"Actually, no. I'm single."
"oh…. that must be so hard. I can't imagine…"
I get that all the time.
And it's not. It's not so hard. Being a single parent is mostly the same as being a stay-at-home mom. You do most of it alone. You work hard and nobody really notices or appreciates it.
Obviously the financial part is hard and we talk about money a whole lot more than we used to.
The hard part is not the parenting, it's all the other stuff. It's being alone that is hard.