Hi Everyone Well I have 4 children and have raised them on my own since December 1995. My X husband and I were together for 18 years in total and started our family when I was 24years old. Man that seems like a lifetime ago now LOL. I would be happy to share my experiences with anyone, I still remember a lot, not always what I expected to remember either LOL.My last child, Lewis was born with a hole in his diaphram. This wasn't picked up on the routine scans and was quite an unusual condition way back then in New Zealand. I did write in to a parenting magazine about it and received a few letters from people who had children with the same condition. I know it is always good to have contact with people who are going through or have gone through similar things as ourselves. Too often we can feel so alone and isolated, like we are the only people in the world who are having to cope with the challenges that are thrown at us. Often society seems to want to blame us parents for the way our children behave etc or if they have issues we tend to blame ourselves. I like to believe that most of us parents do the best we can for our children. Everyone has different ideas and expectations so as an individual and a parent the person you have to have faith in and believe in at the end of the day is YOURSELF. I tried to raise my family using as many natural medicines as possible and still do. Anyway I'll leave it at that and feel free to say Hi and chat. Andrea