Stack of bills on her kitchen table
Out go the lights and off goes the cable
If she don't pay ‘em by the 15th
And it don't look like she's gonna be able
Two mouths to feed, two jobs barely get it done
A lot on her plate for a single mom at 21
From the outside looking in you'd think her world would crumble
But she keeps finding that light at the end of the tunnel

Somehow she keeps getting by
The only soft shoulder she knows
Is on some lonely road
She's going down, she's going down
Sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel, but she's not
No matter what she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got
And that's what keeps her getting by

Friday noon, parent teacher day
It's Johnson elementary or half a shift's pay
But she wouldn't miss it for the world
She looks around at all the Daddy's in the room
Wishing her kids had one of them too
This ain't how she planned it; her life's going ten different ways,
It's off to little league and then to ballet

Somehow she keeps getting by
The only soft shoulder she knows
Is on some lonely road
She's going down, she's going down
Sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel, but she's not
No matter what she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got
And that's what keeps her getting by

In every dark cloud
She keeps finding that silver lining

Sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel, but she's not
No matter what, she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got
And that's what keeps her getting by
Stack of bills on her kitchen table
Out go the lights and off goes the cable
If she don't pay ‘em by the 15th
And it don't look like she's gonna be able
Two mouths to feed, two jobs barely get it done
A lot on her plate for a single mom at 21
From the outside looking in you'd think her world would crumble
But she keeps finding that light at the end of the tunnel

Somehow she keeps getting by
The only soft shoulder she knows
Is on some lonely road
She's going down, she's going down
Sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel, but she's not
No matter what she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got
And that's what keeps her getting by

Friday noon, parent teacher day
It's Johnson elementary or half a shift's pay
But she wouldn't miss it for the world
She looks around at all the Daddy's in the room
Wishing her kids had one of them too
This ain't how she planned it; her life's going ten different ways,
It's off to little league and then to ballet

Somehow she keeps getting by
The only soft shoulder she knows
Is on some lonely road
She's going down, she's going down
Sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel, but she's not
No matter what she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got
And that's what keeps her getting by

In every dark cloud
She keeps finding that silver lining

Sometimes she feels like throwing in the towel, but she's not
No matter what, she's gonna give her kids a better life
Than what she's got
And that's what keeps her getting by