Hi Everyone,
so glad i came across this site. I'm a 42 year old male. I live in a beautiful partpf he country and work full time in the local hospital as a auxilliary nurse.
I have three lovely children, S who is eighteen and D who has just turned seventeen and my yougest is K who is fourteen.
S and D both live with their mum in Eastkilbride and K moved in with myself at the end of last year.
Ive been seperated for almost four years, its kinda lonely at times, but feel ive become a stronger person by going through seperation.
I hope i can meet some new friends on this site and offer some support to others.
love to you all.
Barry
Hi Louise,
its ok, thanks for keeping me right.
i feel ill pick up alot of useful information, its good to know how others deal with common situations.
i work three twelve hour shifts a week, its not ideal and i need to make sure im pretty organised. Its a very close community which i live in, so have lots of offers of support with my daughter.
hi barry1970 - this site is great and very supportive - i am sure you will make new friends here
hi Litteredhen,
you all seem like a fine bunch.. thanks
we do try
the others call me lrh - littleredhen is too much to type!
you say you have been separated 4 years - my separation is only about 12 weeks and i still struggle but i have been doing better recently - finding it easier now we are not communicating and although we have kids we haven't had to communicate recently as the future 2 months of contact have been agreed - hope you find this site helpful
Lrh it is then 
it does get easier with time i think, its just like a grieving process, but trust me you'll come through the other side being a stronger person for the experience.
its good to be able to chat to others who are sharing similiar experiences.
Unfortunatley my communication with the childrens mum is about zero, but i phone the kids every day, even if its just to say a quick 'hi'.
im sure this site will help me, even to realise that im not the only single parent out there
Hi barry1970. Welcome along. Yes it is a great site, and the support on here is wonderful. It's sad that the communication with the children's mum is zero, but now they are older, you can contact them direct I guess, without going through her. It's great that you also have support for your daughter that lives with you. Is she on half-term now?
Hi Hazeleyes, many thanks for the kind welcome. Yes communication is good with the kids, i feel im very lucky in that respect. Id just have liked communication with the childrens mum in order that we could sort out joint debt and the joint mortgage, its an old house which im in the process of doing up, but concerned that i could be forced to sell it, but im looking into it. Yes my daughter is off just now, they had a couple of in service days last week and she will be back to school tomorrow, which reminds me there's homework due in lol.
have you been a single parent for long ?
The dreaded homework, hehe.
I've been on my own since the pregnancy, my son is now 9. The father has no input whatsoever, financial or emotional. My son accepts it I guess, and has only seen him on a few occassions. He lives in Spain, shame it isn't Australia lol.
yip more dreded than i thought, apparently i need powerpoint and well i dont have it lol.
You've done your son proud and he will remember you for it, it must be difficult for your son too, but i guess in this day and age single parent families are pretty much the norm.
do you have good family support ? its something i miss with living on an island, babysitters are short as is my social life lol
Hi barry1970 and welcome from to One Space from me!
It is good to hear that you have good local support, however you are still feeling lonely, is it the evenings that you feel it or the weekends? Does your daughter have a good social circle?
Hi Anna,
thankyou for your kind welcome. im fine when im at work and really enjoy being around others, its my days off that i find lonely and as i do twelve hour shifts i have quite a few off, should be grateful i guess lol.
My daughter is pretty fortunate as she lived here for two years previously and has kept in contact with friends from then. she has also joined a club which meet twice a week inorder to practice for a play taking place at easter.
I don't really have any support Barry. Long story, but one sister lives one and half hours away, another not too far, but though we speak on phone, that's it. A brother that I see once a year at Christmas, and he is also not far! The rest of the so called family, well, I won't say anymore hehe. I've never had babysitters, another story to that!! So, basically it really is just C and I. Sometimes it feels like he's my partner or father, the way he speaks lol. It is lonely but I guess it's just something you get used too, though once he's out and about with his friends, I'll be stuck in on my own. I have recently started work, so at least now I feel like I'm mixing with adults.
What's your daughter's play about at Easter? Living on an island sounds lovely to me 
Hi Barry.
Good to see you here.
My lot are getting on a bit now. Very limited contact with their Father, which is his choice.
With regards to the debt, I lost everything with all the debt being in my ex's name - it was considered joint because we were married. I was 42 when I started to start again...
It's only money though 
Hi barry1970
That is great that your daughter has been able to pick up where she left off, I think if our children do not have a social circle that can play on our minds, so that fact that she is out and about is a weight off.
So it is on your days off that you find difficult. Would you consider doing some volunteering? I am not sure if there would be any opportunities where you live, but this can be a good way to be around other people.
I guess when you are working on the house, that keeps you busy. Do you have people around that dig in and help you?
Hi Anna,
yes it definatley gives me piece of mind and with spring ahead it will be easier for my daughter to be out and about, she's kind of used to hanging around the streets where she used to live, but there aint many streets here lol.
Volunteering would be an option, i think i need to make a bigger effort to go and visit the people i do know. My neighbours although somewhat older than me are very welcoming and often offer to help with my diy around the house.
So barry1970 are you going to the Valentine's Party?? You get to bring a date of your choice!!
i would like to have, but ive promised my daughter we'll watch a movie together.. hopefully next time though.
Hello Barry1970
You are very welcome here, Sorry that I had to edit your post, it's just that we don't use real names and we keep our children's names private too. Hope you understand.
There's lots of friendly support on here, as I hope you can tell from reading through some of the posts. You have a busy job! Does it mean working different shifts or do you have a regualr work pattern?