"Shameless" actress Emmy Rossum wrote a moving piece on social media addressed to single moms and kids of single parents. She was prompted to express her feelings after reading Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's new book with psychologist Adam Grant about coping with solo parenting called "Option B."
Rossum described the book as a story of resilience. Sandberg's experience resonated with the actress as the Facebook executive detailed how she had to pick up the pieces with two young kids after her husband suddenly died.
The book also talked about the stigma affecting children of single parents, as Rossum wrote on Facebook. There are school traditions, such as the Father-Daughter dance, which made the kids feel left out. There's also the thought she won't have a father giving her away when she married.
Rossum said she saw her mom's sacrifices as she stood up as both mother and father for her. Despite having no relationship with her dad, who left them when her mom was pregnant, Rossum said her mother was enough as the only parent in her life.
"I don't like her to know that it still causes me pain - 30 years later - lest she feels somehow that she wasn't enough," Rossum said. "She wasn't perfect, no one is, but for me, she was the best mom ever." Read what the actress wrote in its entirety below.
Rossum doesn't mention her father to the press and admitted several years ago she only met up with him two times in her life, as per USA Today. She also revealed in 2014 that her mom, a corporate photographer, hired nannies to help raise her.
"They were all women who were in their 60s-my mom wouldn't let anyone who was of procreating age take care of me," the actress told The Algemeiner. "My nannies taught me that if you wanted it bad enough, impossible things could happen, like your dad coming back," she added, saying this mindset disillusioned her in her youth.
