I've been participating in the Should you smack your child post, and am beginning to feel a little down on myself. I am a single father of a 9yr girl and am having one helluva time guiding her through these years. She understands that I am trying my best and we get along great, but am intersted in knowing if anyone else has gone through this before?

I'm with you man! I have a now 10 year old son that I was single parenting for years while I was in the military. His mom settled down a few years back and I've moved back into the area so he spends a lot of time with both of us. He has a room at both houses, but goes to school by his moms, so he stays over there through the week and comes over for the weekend. We may be trading off this coming school year. I have a school near my house also. It's up to him really. If he has more friends by his moms and wants to stay there for school, it's no big deal.

Its a bizzare story but I am sort of a single parent.

We both parent but for many reasons we live apart, and the kids stay with her most of the time because while I toil in the city during the week, she raises them in the country, where they are safer, and better educated than if they lived down here. Not an ideal situation for us, but it is working...so far...teen years are going to be interesting.