Teresa | Papatoetoe
“I’m not really lonely. We have family around. I come from a big family. I work at the airport, so I’m always busy interacting with people. All different cultures.
I go on day-trips; go out and go to community and try to get involved with our communities like social and stuff. I’m pretty much grateful to my family, because I’m a solo mum, and I pretty much brought up my daughter on my own. So I suppose it’s pretty much a close-knit family. It’s best to have family around. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t with family, bring up my daughter. She’s a teenager now. So she can learn from my ways, how I’ve come up, and it’s a struggle being a solo parent. Yeah that’s pretty much it. Best to have friends – when I’m down I always talk to my best friends, and then I’ve got work colleagues I can talk to. And then my family and my sister. It is really hard for solo parents. If they can try and go and meet other solo parents, maybe get together with them, and talk about, yeah that’s it.
It’s pretty hard being on your own and you miss having a partner, but I don’t want to bring her into bad relationships, because it’s pretty hard, you know, especially when, when the other person doesn’t accept kids. And it’s really sad if people don’t accept kids. Our kids are the most important things in our life, and I hope my daughter will pick up from me, and be independent, and know how hard I work as a solo mum.”
