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About Solo Mom Strong
I'm Marisol Vega — solo mom of two (7 and 4) in Columbus, Ohio, and the person the wall calendar answers to. My kids split their time between two homes on a 2-2-3 schedule, I work full-time, and for the first year after my divorce I ran the whole operation on sticky notes and adrenaline. This site is what replaced the sticky notes.
Solo Mom Strong is a playbook, not a diary. My working theory, which you'll see stitched into every post: co-parenting is a spreadsheet problem with feelings. The feelings are real and they get their say — but the schedule, the budget, the handoff logistics, and the tax filing status are all systems, and systems can be fixed. So every post here answers one logistics question with real numbers and, wherever possible, something you can print and stick to the fridge.
Here's what's in the binder: co-parenting for custody schedules and two-household logistics (start with the 2-2-3 explainer — it's the schedule I live on), money & taxes for real one-income budgets and plain-English answers to US tax and assistance questions, affordable family life for the routines and grocery math that keep one-parent weeks on time, dating for doing that whole thing without guilt or a babysitter budget you don't have, and single mom by choice — because "solo mom" is the umbrella here, and moms who started solo on purpose get the front door, not a footnote.
Two things you won't find. First, pity — nobody here is brave or broken; we're just running a two-location household on one adult. Second, advice I'm not qualified to give: I hedge every tax, legal, and benefits post on purpose, because programs change and states differ. Check your state, read the official source I've linked, and for anything binding, a tax professional or family-law attorney beats a blog. Including this one.
If you're brand new, start with the 2-2-3 schedule if you're building a custody rotation, or the single-mom budget if it's the first of the month and the math isn't mathing. Either way — you've got this, and now you've got a binder.
A note on affiliate links: some posts contain affiliate links — if you buy through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend things that survived actual use in this actual house.