I think we have to learn to mourn the role we become accustomed when we are mothers/fathers. I think its normal to feel the feelings you are having and as long as you don't burden your son/child with them and work through them through your own means then things wil be fine. I don't think you nescesaryly need a partner, but you will need to find things for you to grow into, to make a life that is also seperate from your child. I have dreams of what I think my life in the future might be like, ie grandchildren etc, etc, but then I also ask myself, if these "dreams" do not turn out in reality, what have I got left? Yes I feel an emptyness with that thought and thats what spurs me on to get more famailiar with my "aloneness" and make friends with myself incase what we would like to have happen doesn't. Its a painful reality that though we gave birth to our children and hope to have an ongoing relationship wtih them, it may not always work out that way and I have to learn to deal with those feelings and not feel disappointment and/or bitterness. Its a very, very hard job being a parent, its the most self-less thing we can ever do in life and sometimes if we're lucky it can be the most rewarding, and inbetween those 2 things is "us".