Single Mom Confession: It's Not All Peaches 'N Cream

You know what I love about single motherhood? Hearing that other single moms don’t always think it’s a picnic. Crazy, right? To me it’s kind of reassuring to know that having feelings of panic, doubt, loneliness, exhaustion, resentment—even anger are…normal. If it never rained, the sun wouldn’t seem so bright, ya know? After the jump, read some honest thoughts on single motherhood from some very cool single moms.

"I don't think I recognized how anxious I was about being a single parent. It was really, really stressful. It's not easy on anybody. Somebody close to me once said, 'Oh, no man will ever accept your children.' And I just thought it was the most horrifying thing someone has ever said to me in my entire life. I was determined to find somebody who would make that not true. And I got lucky. I did. I got very lucky, and he's wonderful. And so wonderful with the children. I'm very blessed." —Reese Witherspoon reflects on single motherhood and her second marriage to Jim Toth.

“I’m not sure anyone — and I could be wrong in this — grows up thinking, I want to be a single mom. Going through that traumatic time of being heartbroken and then being pregnant turned my whole life upside down and inside out and just knocked the wind out of me. But I got so much out of that. It’s golden and it’s tough and it was f*cked up. But now I have a child, and it’s the best thing in the world.” —Bridget Moynahan on going through her pregnancy alone after her breakup with Tom Brady.

“Illario [Ava's father] and I were in love. We met in Paris, where I was producing a fashion show. He was 10 years younger than me. He had an incredible pull on me, like nothing I'd ever experienced before. I was in the middle of separating from my second husband and moving my business from L.A. to New York. I discovered I was pregnant two months into our love affair. It wasn't exactly the best timing. Illario and I didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things and split up three or four months into my pregnancy. From there, I put the blinders on and just focused on becoming a single mother. I was living alone in the back room of my SoHo office, and he was in Paris. If you would have told me that would be my life, I wouldn't have believed it.” —Kelly Cutrone on discovering she was pregnant the night before 9/11

"I struggled, sure. We lived hand-to-mouth, but it was really heart-to-hand. Guy had love and laughter and a lot of good reading and poetry as a child. Having my son brought out the best in me and enlarged my life. Whatever he missed, he himself is a great father today. He was once asked what it was like growing up in Maya Angelou's shadow, and he said, 'I always thought I was in her light.'" —Maya Angelou on her son and being a single teen mom (before MTV made it cool).

How do you feel about single motherhood?

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