‘All my pregnancy photos are selfies’: The unspoken ‘cost’ of being a solo parent

September 8, 2026 - 00:08

A mother in the UK is speaking out about a painful part of single parenting that rarely gets discussed. Amelia Smith, who shares her life on TikTok, recently posted a video where she admits something that broke her heart: she has almost no photos of herself with her child.

In the clip, Smith explains that every picture she has from her pregnancy and early motherhood is a selfie. There is no partner behind the camera to capture the quiet moments, the hospital stays, or the first weeks at home. She says the absence of those images feels like a loss she cannot quite name, a silent cost that nobody warns you about when you decide to raise a child alone.

The video struck a nerve. Thousands of other solo parents responded with their own stories, saying they had never realized they were not alone in this feeling. Many said they had entire albums filled with pictures of their kids, but almost none of themselves with their kids. Some mentioned that their children will grow up without a visual record of their mother holding them, feeding them, or simply sitting with them on the couch.

Smith's point is not about vanity or social media. It is about proof of existence, about having a tangible memory of a life that is exhausting and beautiful at the same time. She hopes that by sharing her experience, other single parents will feel less isolated and maybe start asking friends or family to take more photos of them, even if it feels awkward. Because those images, she says, are not just pictures. They are a legacy.