Originally posted in SheKnows.

I read Sheryl Sandberg’s recent Facebook post from the trenches of a horrible Mother’s Day weekend. The youngest had thrown up on Friday night, and we slept on the couch, sitting up and surrounded by towels, and didn’t move much the next day. Mother’s Day came, and I tried to put it out of my mind. I’m a single mom and estranged from my family. My daughter at one point asked if we could go get a treat, since it was Mother’s Day and all. When I said I didn’t have money to eat out this month, she said, “Well, can’t we just go get a treat for me?”

Sandberg’s post touched a soft spot in me at first. I felt a little hopeful that by her recognizing that single mothers don’t have it easy and many of us live in a hopeless place of poverty, maybe some of the stigmas surrounding us would change.

“In Lean In, I emphasized how critical a loving and supportive partner can be for women both professionally and personally,” she wrote. “Some people felt that I did not spend enough time writing about the difficulties women face when they have an unsupportive partner or no partner at all. They were right.”

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