Local resources for single parents needing assistance, mother shares experience

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A recent study by SingleMothersGrants.org, ranked states according to different bills and pressures a mom raising children on her own feels most. 

According to the study, Kentucky has the fifth highest transport costs in the country for single mothers but has the 10th cheapest child care in the country.

Locally, there are resources available to help single mothers in need.

Brittany Bleick, the mother of two wonderful children, suddenly became a single mother a year and a half ago, moving across the country to live with her sister to provide a safer home for her and her children.

“I don’t have, like, a huge support system, so I literally am with my kids from the second they wake up until they go to bed. And if they need something, I have to provide it. You don’t ever get to tap out. And that leans on financial; everything financially is on me. We don’t get help from their dad. There are diapers, there’s food. There are toys. If we want to go do something at the zoo. That’s all on me. Every single thing those children need is me,” said Bleick.

Forty-five percent of all Kentucky households are struggling financially, with 55% of single fathers and 75% of single mothers struggling with finances.

A single parent of two small children would need to work a full time job making $35 an hour to make ends meet, equivalent to just under $70,000 a year.

“Transportation is a challenge because fuel is expensive and I drive a very old V8 and I’m putting gas in that thing constantly. I think I go through like $75 in nine or ten days in fuel. So we’re filling up all the time. Because I get the state’s help, we’re still paying over $900 a month for my two kids to be in daycare. If I did not receive financial help from the state, it would be $2,204 for my children to attend daycare full time,” said Bleick.

United Way of Southern Kentucky has resources available to point families and single parents toward resources available in the area.

Resources, especially for children under the age of five, are especially important for the stability of the young child’s environment.

“If a parent is struggling financially and they don’t know where they’re going to sleep at night, that child feels that crisis. They can feel the energy from mom. They know that they’re not maybe in a safe place if they’re sleeping in a car or sleeping on a street or in a shelter and that impacts their ability to learn and grow. So if we want to invest in our future and in our future leaders, our future economy, that starts with these children. Birth to five,” said Megan Henness with the United Way.

But there are many who do not seek help because they think it’s only for parents facing homelessness or skipping meals… someone worse off than them.

“They are one crisis or one unexpected expense away from not being stable and potentially losing their home or their apartment or their job because their car breaks down. That’s what these resources are really for. It’s for those people in between that need that extra hand. Every once in a while. And that’s okay. It’s okay to reach out. It’s okay to get help. It’s what they’re there for,” said Henness.