Tales from the crib: Stories of loneliness from the front lines of parenting

Single father Leland Dieno immediately embraced his role as a dad when his son was born. So much so, he says, that he let his old social circle slip away.

"I was that guy that identified only as a parent in those couple of years and I was extremely lonely," said Dieno, pointing out a pattern many new parents say they slip into. 

Parents, especially new parents, rarely get a moment alone, but that doesn't mean they aren't at risk of loneliness. As part of CBC Vancouver's Still Lonely series, Lower Mainland parents with children of all ages shared their experiences of feeling socially isolated during parenthood and how they coped.

Dieno, whose son is now seven, said he socially isolated himself when his child was first born, choosing to focus all his time and energy on the new human at the centre of his life. Eventually, he realized he couldn't be the only lonely single father in need of community and when his son was a toddler, Dieno launched the No Deadbeats Society, a Vancouver support group for dads like himself.

"They identify solely as a parent and what that does is it creates this focus on only parenting and they lose sight of obtaining their own goals, and enjoying their own life, and that includes making friends," Dieno said on CBC's The Early Edition.

And it's not just parents of young children who can feel lonely.

The college years

North Vancouver resident Wiley Ho has a son who is now in college. She says being an empty nester can feel lonely, but the teen years were also no picnic.

Ho said it was hard when her son started to pull away from her right before he turned 13.

"Then high school started and there was a slow drift and by 14 I really noticed that he was keeping secrets, he wasn't sharing stuff, and it was lonely," said Ho.

Ho's friend, Michelle Perrault, who has two grown children, remembers losing adult friends when her children entered high school and drifted away from their elementary school crowd.

"How do you keep your adult connections when what brought you together is no longer together?" said Perrault.

Now, neither woman has to worry about curfews or report cards or teenage hormones. But Ho says empty nesting can be bittersweet.

"I would wager to guess that most people find it a mixture of nostalgia for a pattern of life that is changed forever, and a sense of personal liberation."

It takes a village

Ho and Perrault, and their pal Martha Warren, are all empty nesters who have created a community where they can lean on each other. 

"It's just being surrounded by people that really do understand," said Warren, who came to the city as a single parent 20 years ago, "I think the more support you have the better."

And for Dieno, who still has a decade or so to go before his nest is empty, the support group he created means he will have a community to help carry him through the years to come.

He also has a newfound appreciation for parents he knew when he was a teen.

"The biggest thing I learned through the past few years is how much more respect I have for all my friends' moms who were single when I was growing up."

This story is part of CBC Vancouver's series Still Lonely? airing on CBC Radio One's The Early Edition from Nov. 25-29, with features on CBC Vancouver News at 6 and cbc.ca/bc.