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Single motherhood has always been fraught with challenges. Compared to married mothers, single moms face greater financial insecurity, isolation, and obstacles to balancing work and parenthood. A health crisis, a lost job, or an expensive house repair threatens to crush a single mom’s financial well-being since many of them live precariously close to the margins with little savings or assets.

Yet, somehow, most single moms have made it work—often by taking on an extra job, sacrificing self-care, and piecing together a way to provide for their children. Now COVID-19 has hit single mothers particularly hard. Not only are single mothers overrepresented among the many millions of the newly unemployed, but a large percentage are essential workers, such as grocery clerks, health aides, and nurses.

Stress and fear make everything more difficult as it attacks our wellbeing in a variety of ways. Worry robs us of sleep, undermines our focus, ratchets up our nervous system.