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012: Sharing Adulthood with Your Child: A Conversation with Natasha Steer
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Today Kelly welcomes Natasha Steer to the Single Mom Stories podcast. Giving birth as a teenage mother and going it alone without the help of a partner, Natasha introduces the audience to her inspiring story in which she and her son moved from Toronto to China, traveled abundantly abroad, and they found solace in each other. Natasha opens up the conversation by talking about her teaching career and how she completed her degree in five years, despite raising a child on her own. Luckily, during this time, she received lots of support from her own mom so that she could enjoy some semblance of life as a “normal” 19 year old. It was this unwavering support that allowed her to silence the haters and turn her cheek to the teen mom stigma.
A short eight years later, however, her life was far from normal. She accepted a teaching position in China, where she and her son would live for the next four years. During their time abroad, mother and son were able to travel all across Asia and eventually Europe. Having graduated with a mountain of student debt, she’d finally reached a point in her financial life where she could spend money on surprises for her son. Natasha draws this episode to a close as she talks about spending the entirety of her adult life with her son. With her son, now 18, ready to begin his own adult life, she finds that she’s returning to herself for the first time since she was a child, and she’s even picked up a few old hobbies.
The Finer Details of this Episode:
- Natasha’s jump into her teaching career
- The importance of familial support
- How children change your priorities
- Facing the teen mom stigma
- Raising a child and starting a career
- Moving with her son to China
- The uncertainty of living abroad
- The joy in surprising her son
- Spending your entire adult life with your child
- Picking up old hobbies
Quotes:
“So I had my son quite young. I was 19, and I hadn't started university yet. So I waited until he was just about two, and then I started the programs… and that took me about five years.”
“It was the first night my son was home from the hospital, and I was about to run out the door with two of my teenage friends. And I sort of caught sight of him, and I was like, ‘Whoa, what do I do with that?’”
“I was just another single teen mom trying to navigate a narrative that had been put on me.”
“That was maybe one of the hardest things I think about living abroad, that thought process and that uncertainty: Where do we go back? And do we go back?”
“Traveling over there is very different than it is here. It's a lot less money on flights. You know, you can go to Japan for the weekend. You can go wherever for the weekend. We had a lot of vacation time. They had a Fall Festival, Spring Festival, and Chinese New Year.”
“Being able to sort of navigate the travel world, and get a little bit more comfortable buying the tickets, organizing the things, and planning it all out meant that I could offer him some of those opportunities.”
“I mean, you think about how you started the journey: 19, no money, no college education, and all by yourself. And you're at this point where you're traveling to 40 countries with your son. I mean, that's so special.”
“I can't speak for all single moms, but I think that you get comfortable being on your own.”
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