✨ The Guilt + The Hustle: Life as a Working Single Mom ✨

✨ The Guilt + The Hustle: Life as a Working Single Mom ✨

Written somewhere between takeoff and turbulence

Right now I’m sitting on a plane—five hours in the sky, wifi that barely works, and a brain that won’t shut off. I’m surrounded by strangers who are watching movies, sleeping, or pretending they aren’t elbowing their seatmate. Meanwhile, I’m here thinking about my kids…

People see the travel, the hair shows, the PRAVANA projects, the magazines, the photos, the classes, the bright hair, the hustle.

They see the highlight reel.

What they don’t see is the emotional gymnastics that happen before every flight.

The rushed grocery store run.

The extra hugs before I leave.

The last-minute laundry.

The internal argument of “Am I building a life for us, or missing the life we already have?”

The Guilt

There’s a specific kind of guilt that single moms and really every working mom carry.

Not the “I didn’t pack Pinterest-worthy lunches” guilt.

It’s the “I’m chasing my dreams, and I worry that makes me less present” kind of guilt.

When you don’t have another adult to say,

“Hey, I’ve got this while you go chase your passion,”

you learn to balance the world on your own shoulders.

I think about the face-time calls where I pretend I’m not exhausted.

I think about the school events I can’t always make.

I think about the dinners that come in DoorDash bags instead of pots and pans. The uber rides to school.

Motherhood is a constant dialogue with the universe:

“Am I doing enough?”

“Are they okay without me right now?”

“Is all of this going to be worth it?”

The Hustle

People say,

“You’re lucky you get to travel.”

Lucky?

I worked for this.

Lucky doesn’t look like:

• 4am airport alarms

• lugging mannequin heads through TSA

• answering client messages at midnight

• stacking back-to-back days behind the chair before I fly out again

Lucky looks like sacrifice.

I don’t have someone paying my bills.

No one is dropping money into my account and saying “Follow your dreams.”

What I have is:

• grit

• a vision

• a fire in my chest

• and kids who are watching me build a life from nothing

That’s why I hustle the way I do.

The Why

I want my kids to see what’s possible.

I want them to know that we don’t quit when life gets hard.

We pivot.

We grow.

We rise.

I want them to see a mom who:

• builds a business

• shows up for her dreams

• and still loves them more than oxygen

They may not understand what I’m building right now.

But one day they will.

One day they’ll say,

“My mom didn’t just tell me I could do anything. She showed me.”

And that makes every flight, every long day, every missed moment worth it.

To the single mom who is hustling:

You’re not failing.

You’re fighting.

You are not selfish for chasing what sets your soul on fire.

You are showing your kids what passion looks like.

You are showing them that dreams require effort.

And that effort builds freedom.

Keep going.

You’re building something they’ll thank you for later.