I am with you there - I am a single parent to 2 children however I only work part time - but I have a couple of ideas.

I have a break at work and I go for a walk around the block - I am not sure if you have a lunch break or something. My gym also do 45 minute classes that people can do in their lunch??
I have a workout DVD - its 3 20 minute workouts. Its the Jillian Michaels from biggest loser 30 day shred. I got it for 5 from amazon. On a day I cannot go gym I do 20 mins of that or perhaps 2 workouts at 40 mins.
The other thing is - I am not sure how old your children are but can you take them swimming?? My gym also has after school kids activities so if you had anything locally you could put them in something like this then go gym (but it does get costly)

Good Luck!!

This must be hard to shoulder all the responsibility alone of raising children. Could you start with fitting 5 -10 minutes of some sort of exercise into your day. Either at lunch/breaks or in the evening during TV commercials. If you took the time for commercials for one 1 hour program and did some type of moving you would get in more than 5 minutes. Maybe start with some simple stretches or get a resistance band ($10 at WalMart).
A great site to get some instructions and demos for exercise and even some short videos (free) is sparkpeople.com.

im not a single parent, but i am a stay at home parent of 2 small kids. the answer for me is bedtime. i have a step stool and i just march forward and back on it for half an hour or so while i watch tv and before i go to bed. it sounds like a little, but it really helps.

What about trying to break up daily exercise into three blocks of ten minutes each? Ten minutes of stretching/strength exercises when you get up. A ten-minute walk during a break at work. And ten minutes of something in the evening, either by yourself, or maybe you and your kids could do something together. Like after they do their homework, you could institute a routine where everyone does ten minutes (or more) of something together. You have a pretty full plate. I don't know how old your kids are, but as they gradually become more independent, this will change. Best of luck with it.

The step stool is a great idea for you. Try putting good dance music on while your cleaning to put an extra bounce in your step. Can you take walks with the kids? Good luck.. trying to remember what I did when my kids were young... think I just danced and did different exercises to music.

I was in a similar situation a few years ago.

I had to sit down and write down each of my days activites. Get myself into a strict routine. With 4 young kids, working full time and being single, I had no choice. It can be done, just break your day down into what can wait until tomorrow and what really needs to be done today. (the laundry will still be there tomorrow if need be)

I found that trying to get some exercise during my lunch hour while at work helped. I also joined a local group in my area of other mums wanting to lose weight, we took in turns in having each others children to get in at least an hour of exercise at night.

I used to cook several meals over the weekend to have as quick heat ups through the week. This gave me an extra 30 mins some nights to add some kind of exercise into my routine.

Incorporate the kids into exercise. Take them for a quick walk with you before dinner. Tires them out too. I used to have one in a pram, one in a carrypack on the back and 2 walking beside me. It was never fast paced, but it was better than nothing.

Good luck to you. Take a deep breath, you can do this.

This is something I struggle with too. (Thanks everyone for the suggestions!). I have work full time, 45 min from hoime and have three kids, ages 2, 3, and 16. I would love to do a 30 minute circuit type gym (like curves) but their hours don't work (they open too late and close too early!). I am not divorced, but my husband is an addict (currenlty about one month sober, thank God), but I honestly haven't been able to depend on him for some time, and I am not sure when I will trust him fully again....so....I have this excercise dimemna too. Normally I would say taking the kids for a walk is great, but here on the East Coast its dark and cold by the time I am home from work (at this time of year anyway). I have thought about buying an eliptical machine, but I am not sure where I would put it. I also don't take a lunch break because I leave early in order to get to daycare on time. Its tough!