I have been a parent almost all my life. I can’t say I have done a good job of it. I don’t know anyone who would. I was still in my late teens when I first became a parent and I found myself on my own as a single parent just before I turned 25-years-old. This was during the early 1970s. It is hard to be a single parent. It was even harder back in the ’70s. There was some help for single moms but there was none at all for single dads. There is more help today but it is still, in my opinion, not an easy thing to do. I maintain that it is hard enough for two people to parent a child but it is darn near impossible for one.

I write all this not as a boast and certainly not to seek sympathy. I write only to tell the many single moms and dads who work in this business that I have empathy for you. I understand. I know that you may feel no one understands. I assure you, I get it.

Some things that are hard for others to do are almost insurmountable to a single parent. Like getting a job. Once you have work, the worry, the guilt, the juggling and the never-ending rushing to meet impossible time commitments are overwhelming. It is all exhausting. Yet a single parent must get up and do this every day, every single day, no sleeping in, even on Saturday. As I sit here writing this in my 60s today, I get tired just thinking about it. How did I do it? Not very well.

There is always a catch for a single parent needing to work. Some jobs may seem more compatible to a single parent if they offer flexible hours or commission-based incomes, but there is always a catch. At the end of the day you have to produce or get out. In my day, I got some great jobs that paid very well, but I always had to start on the night shift or evening shift. I never lasted more than a month or two on those jobs. For me and I know for all other single parents, it all comes down to two things; your ability to cope and a bit of luck. Sometimes you get one or the other; rarely do both happen at the same time.

Eventually there is extreme compromise in all things, from how you live to where you live. It is all managing and coping. I got by from help I received from extraordinary partners in my life who I did not deserve.

If you want to ever see some real hard-working single moms, get out some day at 6 am. Get your Starbucks latte or your Tim Hortons double double on the dashboard of your car and go for a drive on a cold winter dawn. You will see them in the morning darkness at the bus stops huddled with their children waiting for the bus to get to day care and then on to work. At the end of the day, they head back exhausted. I wish I could stop and tell them all, I am with them in my heart.

At first blush the real estate profession may seem a good career choice for a single parent. You think they might do well in this business. There are flexible hours and for someone who can work tenaciously at their home desk into late hours with computer technology, social media and a good grasp of customer service, it can work well. But of course there are all the caveats; you need money to buy a computer, the $40 or $50 it costs per month for internet and there is the actual time, in the evening of course, to show properties. Where do you find that time? Where do you even get the money for a car, let alone the gas? It could all work maybe if they teamed up with a Realtor who could do the showings and the closings. I wish them success.

I was blessed with more children in my 30s and 40s and after all these years I can tell you I still remember some mighty tough times as a parent and as a single dad. At the end of the day I can promise every single parent one thing. No matter how hard it may seem, when you look back you will realize that it was worth every moment and every single second.

Heino Molls is publisher of REM. Email [email protected].