Yay! It’s #SingleMomSunday, and today’s guest post is from one of my favorite women ever. She is an amazing writer and the personification of doing it anyway as you will see. Ella Rucker is both my mentor and friend, and I am so pleased she decided to write a snippet of her life to encourage us on the journey. Read on as she takes a humorous yet serious look at coparenting with a non-traditional parent- technology. Holler back in the comments if this resonates with you.

Most moms feel guilty letting their iPads coparent their children.
I don’t.
My daughter’s iPad is the mother she doesn’t have right now. I’m an entrepreneur by day and an entrepreneur by night; and sometimes I slip a little Mommying in for good measure.
I don’t care who “gets it.” If my daughter and I are to succeed in any way, her iPad has to pull its weight. Mommy can’t Mommy and entrepreneur at the same time all the time.
What some call a problem I call a solution and it started innocently enough. When my daughter was very small I started working with a blogger who needed me to be 24/7. At the time I didn’t have a computer. THAT seems weird as connected as I am now to working and living in front of my laptop, but I digress. I got the iPad for work, but it was quickly replaced with the previously mentioned laptop because it didn’t function for me as needed.
My somewhat discarded iPad became my daughter’s toy. It was really really really cute watching her play with it since she picked up the semantics of the device so well.And let’s not beat around the bush.With her attention diverted I could get things done around the house, which includes work, while she watched new movies on Netflix or learned something new from one of her favorite characters on her apps that I surely keep topped up every time I get paid. (I see it as the cheaper version of babysitting money.)
Guess what? Same applies when I dragged her to networking or speaking events where I needed her to sit in the wings while I worked.
One of my favorite interests my daughter developed on the iPad was watching silent cartoons. She has a knack for finding the most unusual movies. I have two competing for the most awesome finds ever: Hello Kitty playing Cinderella in Chinese and German Little Red Riding Hood. Yeah. She had an affinity for loving foreign cartoons! What mother doesn’t like that. (I’m chalking this up as homeschooling: theatrical training and a little foreign language, too.)
So I became addicted to her being entertained and she was learning so many different things; things I wouldn’t have taught her no matter how much homeschooling I did.I was building my business and didn’t have the resources to keep her in daycare or drop her off with a friend so I let her iPad become a de facto mom.
Yes, her iPad is #Bae, but guess what? For anyone who is having problems with friends and family worrying about your child’s quality of life because they are iPad aficionados, don’t. There is plenty of parenting to be done outside of the iPad. Siri is a bad motha, but parenting is still work.

1. It still isn’t easy. My daughter is five and I still stand guard when she has to go potty, eat, sleep, head to the park, do her homework, have teeth pulled, visit doctors. No iPad does that.

2. I have to be aware on another level. Even though it has only happened once or twice, it happens. My daughter ran into some content I don’t like. We discussed it and she’s tried it, but we are over it.

3. I’m a better entrepreneur with a “partner.” I often travel on planes, trains, and automobiles with my daughter. Guess what? She’s learned to “self soothe” with an iPad. I’ve learned I have a limited amount of time no matter how many shows or apps I load; she needs more than the one form of entertainment.

4. I’m still her favorite form of entertainment.

5. It turns off and my trick of all tricks back in the day? When the iPad runs out of power I don’t run to recharge. Turns out if she can’t play with it she’s fine with that and so is Mommy.

6. I had to teach her space management and how to prioritize. We may have toys everywhere (proof that the iPad isn’t her only source of entertainment), but there is limited memory on that iPad. She has learned to prioritize what apps are necessary and which aren’t when a new one won’t download due to space restrictions.

7. She is quite the photographer and I’ll find the funniest pictures of our trips and events on the iPad months later. It is up to me to encourage the work she does on her iPad.

8. I appreciate my mother who had three kids in 22 months. There are times (many many many) when I’m doing her hair or something and I appreciate the flexibility of not having to fight with her for her to see her screen. Plus, I can watch television whilst she is on her iPad. I know we shouldn’t, but it works for us.

9. An iPad makes kids sharers because everyone wants a turn. My daughter is learning this. I am learning to put the iPad away when she has company over.

10. When Mommy doesn’t have the money for a new app, my daughter has learned to live with it and get a lesser app. I’ve learned you get that for which you have paid! She has learned “no” is acceptable, but she also learned to keep asking.
Parenting is hard no matter what tools you have in your quiver. I do feel guilty my daughter misses out on some things, but if I can paraphrase a popular quote, “I have to parent in a way most won’t so my child and I can live in a way most can’t.”
We have a long-term goal; and if an iPad has to coparent, I can’t feel guilty about that!

Ella Rucker (@EllaLaverne) is an entrepreneur’s best resource for information, networks, and mentorship. Currently, Ella is the Producer and Director of Operations for #MentorMonday and co-founder of Weekend Startup School. Both are aimed at mentoring minority entrepreneurs in the first five years of business and are building blueprints through mentoring, masterminding and coaching for entrepreneurs to grow and enrich their businesses and their lives. She is also a master blogger having written a best-selling eguide for BeBlogalicious entitled Tick Tock Goes The Blog Clock: The What, Why and How Of Creating 365 Days Of Content TODAY, and having spoken at #BloggerWeek, Niche Parent Conference and Blogalicious as a content creation expert. Look for her upcoming book, it is sure to please! You can oreview it by clicking