Embarking on the dating scene can be a fun though sometimes daunting prospect for any single woman. But for the more than 10 million single women in the U.S. with children at home, dating is a much more complicated matter. Whether uncoupled through divorce or death, single moms face a wide range of questions: When will I be ready to date and how do I start? When—and what—should I tell the kids? What happens if I love the guy and the kids hate him?

In Mom, There's a Man in the Kitchen and He's Wearing Your Robe, Ellie Slott Fisher, a once-widowed, once-divorced single mother of two, speaks with refreshing candor about balancing dating and parenting. Drawing upon her own experience, the stories of many other women, and the advice of family psychologists, Fisher offers encouragement, strategies, and a healthy dose of humor for the single-but-looking mom-from how to meet men in the first place to when to introduce your date to the kids, from when and where to work sex into the equation to how to talk to your dating teenagers without looking like a hypocrite. Practical, funny, and hopeful, this is the one guide single moms need before jumping into the murky waters of the dating pool.