Letter of the Week: Hard times for a solo parent

I read your article the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend (Inside Story, August 20) with great empathy for solo mother Jody.

One phrase really resonated with me, "there is no one to help in the middle of the night".

I raised four children, and many of those years were as a solo mother.

A late-night crisis I remember well when the children were young, was when the power suddenly dimmed to almost nothing and the switchboard began to buzz.

I did not want to call the emergency number at such an unsocial hour, but turned it all off at the main and called during business hours.

It appears that the buzzing was a slowly smouldering switchboard, it was indeed an emergency.

All I wanted at the time was for someone to say to me "I will take care of it for you".

I enjoyed those years with my children, money was not too plentiful, but we laughed a lot.

Being the sole adult is such a huge responsibility but as my sons grew older, I did have someone "to take care of it for me".

Jody, the hard times do not last forever.

Robin Bishop, Pyes Pa