By: Gina pedroza
Sometimes being a parent can be challenging, but being a single parent could be even more difficult, in view of the fact that you're essentially doing a two person task. For Lucila Franco, an immigrant from Michoacan, Mexico, being a single mom raising three kids was strenuous, but worth all the stress.
Growing up Lucila, or “Lucy”, as she likes to be called, has always had a good relationship with her dad. But had a strained relationship with her mother which would later impact the way she lived her life, and the way she raised her kids.
Lucy was born into a family of 12, later on becoming 13 when her youngest sister was born. As she grew up in a big family, she was constantly in charge of chores such as: washing clothes and doing the dishes. It became such a strain on her, that it affected her academics, and relationship with her 10 siblings.
When Lucy was 25, she had finally decided to move on from her old life and how she describes this struggle as depressing and extremely tiring.
At first, she was hesitant and didn't want to leave all of her customs, family and traditions behind. But another part of her wanted to start fresh, and didn’t want any weight left on her shoulders from her stressful past.
When I asked Lucy what had impacted her the most when she finally made the decision to move to the U.S., she said, “ When I first moved to the U.S. I loved it. I saw that just one week of work could pay for food and supplies.”
She had also mentioned that when she first moved to the U.S. alone, she was not aware that she was pregnant with her first child and it caused her to have more anxiety than she already had. Even though the father did not want to be in her, nor the child's life, she had her older sister, Graciella’s help. She showed her how to become independent and not be afraid of moving on with life on her own.
Lucy said that when she had her first child Jonathan, she felt guilty that she had to leave him every day with a babysitter before going to work instead of spending time at home with the baby.
This continued to happen when she had her two daughters a few years later: “As a single parent I had to provide for all three of my kids by leaving them at home with a caretaker while I was at work trying my best to provide for all three. As much as I wanted to be at home with my kids spending quality time together, I just couldn't. I didn't have the time or money to stay at home. I think that it was harder for Jonathan because he was the one that had the least amount of time with me when he was growing up as a teen.”
As much as she wanted to be there with her kids she simply couldn't, she had bills to pay and mouths to feed. Just as she thought she did not have enough problems, her son had an incident at home that caused him to be put in a mental health facility, things became much more rocky from there and she now had to worry much more about her kids well being than before. This also happened with her first daughter, Kimberly and her youngest daughter, Georgina. She would constantly blame herself for what had happened to them and would blame it on the fact that she “abandoned’’ them for her work. She later became an ally for her son Jonathan because he came out as gay, even though it was against her relegion she completely ignored it and became his biggest supporter and also later on became much more close with both of her daughters.
After talking to Lucy about the events that happened in her life the very last question that I had for her was: “Looking back thus far, what are you most proud of?” and she answered with “The one thing that I am most proud of is being able to raise three incredibly strong kids as a single mom, most people can't do it, but I'm glad that I could.”
Sometimes being a parent can be challenging, but being a single parent could be even more difficult, in view of the fact that you're essentially doing a two person task. For Lucila Franco, an immigrant from Michoacan, Mexico, being a single mom raising three kids was strenuous, but worth all the stress.
Growing up Lucila, or “Lucy”, as she likes to be called, has always had a good relationship with her dad. But had a strained relationship with her mother which would later impact the way she lived her life, and the way she raised her kids.
Lucy was born into a family of 12, later on becoming 13 when her youngest sister was born. As she grew up in a big family, she was constantly in charge of chores such as: washing clothes and doing the dishes. It became such a strain on her, that it affected her academics, and relationship with her 10 siblings.
When Lucy was 25, she had finally decided to move on from her old life and how she describes this struggle as depressing and extremely tiring.
At first, she was hesitant and didn't want to leave all of her customs, family and traditions behind. But another part of her wanted to start fresh, and didn’t want any weight left on her shoulders from her stressful past.
When I asked Lucy what had impacted her the most when she finally made the decision to move to the U.S., she said, “ When I first moved to the U.S. I loved it. I saw that just one week of work could pay for food and supplies.”
She had also mentioned that when she first moved to the U.S. alone, she was not aware that she was pregnant with her first child and it caused her to have more anxiety than she already had. Even though the father did not want to be in her, nor the child's life, she had her older sister, Graciella’s help. She showed her how to become independent and not be afraid of moving on with life on her own.
Lucy said that when she had her first child Jonathan, she felt guilty that she had to leave him every day with a babysitter before going to work instead of spending time at home with the baby.
This continued to happen when she had her two daughters a few years later: “As a single parent I had to provide for all three of my kids by leaving them at home with a caretaker while I was at work trying my best to provide for all three. As much as I wanted to be at home with my kids spending quality time together, I just couldn't. I didn't have the time or money to stay at home. I think that it was harder for Jonathan because he was the one that had the least amount of time with me when he was growing up as a teen.”
As much as she wanted to be there with her kids she simply couldn't, she had bills to pay and mouths to feed. Just as she thought she did not have enough problems, her son had an incident at home that caused him to be put in a mental health facility, things became much more rocky from there and she now had to worry much more about her kids well being than before. This also happened with her first daughter, Kimberly and her youngest daughter, Georgina. She would constantly blame herself for what had happened to them and would blame it on the fact that she “abandoned’’ them for her work. She later became an ally for her son Jonathan because he came out as gay, even though it was against her relegion she completely ignored it and became his biggest supporter and also later on became much more close with both of her daughters.
After talking to Lucy about the events that happened in her life the very last question that I had for her was: “Looking back thus far, what are you most proud of?” and she answered with “The one thing that I am most proud of is being able to raise three incredibly strong kids as a single mom, most people can't do it, but I'm glad that I could.”