Christmas has come and gone and you’re feeling a bit deflated as the long nights and cold days lay ahead, and you’re feeling like your children don’t appreciate the effort you went to at Christmas or are not grateful for the gifts they received. How do you get past this?

Not feeling like you’re the most creative? Worried that your child won’t sit in front of zoom and get involved? Don’t know anyone else who attends? If there are always feels like an absolute mass of reasons why you shouldn’t get involved with something that is unknown, we get it, the unknown can feel scary. We want to give you the opportunity to not only get involved, but enjoy the whole process, so have a little read of this and if you have any other questions send them our way.

Mothers Matter was set up by Katy Thomas after she saw a gap in what is needed for new mums struggling with their mental health. We love how compassionate her services offer. In this interview Katy talks openly about her struggles with mental health after her daughter was born and how other mums can reach out, get support and not feel alone in their thoughts.

Christmas for many is a time to be celebrated – a break from work, socialising with friends and family and shopping in excess. But for single parents, the festive period can be anything but merry, bringing a host of financial, logistical, social and emotional pressures.  

We understand that single parents face an increase in household bills and this year have been struck by a decrease in Universal Credit benefits all adding to the financial burden of the holidays.

With many single parents being without their children and working increased hours to meet the demands and expectations of the festive period, we would like to call on Single Parents across Wales to join our network so that we can support you in combatting the Christmas blues. 

As part of our Young Person’s Project we wanted our team wanted to share their experiences of mental health, what has helped them and advice for other young people.

As part of our Young Person’s Project we wanted our team wanted to share their experiences of mental health, what has helped them and advice for other young people.

Etholiad Senedd Ieuenctid Cymru 2021, Welsh Youth Parliament Elections 2021, means that young people aged between 11- 18 years old can vote for a candidate in their area. Voting will take place between 1-22nd November 2021.

We interviewed Amelia ahead of the youth parliament elections and we think you’ll agree that Amelia is a leader of the future.

Candidate Amelia is a focused young person with heart and a real ambition to make a difference in her community. Plus Amelia is growing up in a single parent household and is a real inspiration to other young people.

Every month we spotlight amazing organisations in Wales that are doing great things in the community. This month we are interviewing Olga Sullivan, Director of the Cardiff Branch of Samaritans.

In this interview Olga tells us more about the amazing services they offer, advise on what to say to a loved one that’s struggling and an insight into what their phone lines have been like during covid.

Rom coms and other media would have us believe that when a relationship breaks down or we part ways with someone we’ve had a child with that you meet for coffee, are best mates or generally run through meadows together.

I’m sure a small percentage of the single parent population do have that, but the vast majority will have been on a rollercoaster to get to the coparenting relationship they have today. Or they manage to parallel parent or even counter parent.

Every month we spotlight amazing organisations in Wales that are doing great things in the community. This month we are interviewing Homestart Cymru including what services they offer, their Rainbow Volunteer programme and how they have expanded to reach families during the course of the pandemic.

Every month we spotlight amazing organisations in Wales that are doing great things in the community. This month we are getting to know Advocacy Support Cymru including what services they offer and looking at ways they promote social inclusion, equality and social justice.

SPW Director Rachel Cule appeared on BBC Radio Wales Dot Davis breakfast show to voice the struggles of being a single parent and managing the 6 weeks of summer holidays.

What really came through from our members was the overriding feeling of guilt, expense and the juggling act of the summer holidays is a big and stressful time for single parents.

Pleasure is a positive and inherent part of who we are as humans. We are biologically designed to experience pleasure in a multitude of ways, via our five senses. Furthermore, our eros can be viewed as not just our libido, but our life force, creativity and the very essence of who we are. However, people’s upbringings or distressing or traumatic life events can take their toll on their relationship to pleasure.

Every month we spotlight brilliant Community Organisations that are doing amazing things for Wales. This month we have interviewed Sign Sight and Sound who are aim to improve the quality of life and equality of access for deaf people and people with a sensory loss.

On 24 June, Lord Farmer led a Question for Short Debate in the House of Lords: "to ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the Child Maintenance Service". It is hopefully going to initiate change in the failing CMS system.

We were extremely keen to provide some facts and figures directly from the CMS so that we could talk openly about how they calculate their own figures and how they make assessments for both resident and non-resident parents. Once one of our skilled volunteer started searching for this information it was made abundantly clear that this is not really something the CMS wants you to know or find out.

Breathe UK are a growing social enterprise with a focus on offering affordable access to counselling and working with other third sector organisations and Universities. Read on to find out about how they adapted to the pandemic and how to make the steps into being referred to counselling.

There will be a lot of situations in a single parents life that they will have to be in the same room as their ex partner, and one of those reasons may be your child’s birthday party. This can stir up so many emotions and be a highly stressful situation. So we have round up some top tips to consider.

One of the first subjects that was addressed was the Child Maintenance Service. This is an issue that is discussed and brought up over and over again by our SPW Members in Wales. Therefore, we decided to create some research around the impact of CMS and see if there are any common themes between single parents' experiences around CMS. We are showing the results in a series of 3 blogs and invite more single parents to get involved and complete the survey.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have really wanted to talk with your child about online safety, but the words just didn’t seem to come very easily? Over the years of delivering Better Together Online Safety’s workshops I have heard parents give various reasons for this.