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Ms. Magnolia

Letters have been edited for length and clarity.

Dear Ms. Magnolia, My ex-husband and I have three kids together, two while we were married and one later. We broke up and divorced, but we got back together for a short while and I got pregnant again. Then we broke up again. I had a new relationship with somebody else and had another baby. We don’t live togeth- er and the financial responsibility for

all my kids falls on me.

I feel like people think of a single mother in a negative way, and we need to change that. I want people to know the hardships single mothers face like being in charge of the house, the bills, buying gifts with maxed out cards, going to work instead of staying home with a sick kid, and falling asleep alone on the couch because her bed is just too empty. Single Mom

Dear Single Mom, It appears that you want a pat on the back and sympathy for being a mom with four children and having the same responsibilities most mothers have. Being a single mom with two children after a divorce may be understandable, but the other two children exist because of your poor choices since you had no commitment from those two fathers to help you raise them, and yet you got pregnant anyway.

Having a bed that “is just too empty” is hardly an excuse, with all the birth control available in this country, to have two more children to support on your own. And there are reasons for following moral guidelines, such as not being promiscuous: to keep us from having harsh consequences for bad decisions. Why should people feel “positive” about a single mom who made poor choices and now wants a sympathetic ear?

If you have a question for Ms. Magnolia, please mail it to P.O. Box 669, Vidalia, GA 30475, or e-mail to msmagnoliaadvance@yahoo.com.