I suppose I should be sympathetic, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for people who have kids and then can't afford to take care of them without depending on the government.
I can't help but think of all our prior generations that had huge families and no hand outs or expectations that the nanny state would step in and help them.
Something has gone terribly wrong in America.
You can't know the particulars of any situation. My sister was recently divorce (won't go into the gory details but it was pretty horrible) and didn't think she'd ever be in this position either but she has six kids ranging in age from 6 to 19 (the 19 year old still lives at home until he's done with his fire training at the community college and starts working). Her whole life she's been a homeschooling mom. The narcissistic asshole she married has done everything he can to make her suffer. He's intimidating enough that she was afraid to do anything but accept his terms. She couldn't afford her own lawyer and he hired the best law firm in the state. She (was) pretty naive, has no marketable skill to speak of. He owns his own business has managed to hide almost all his income so it looks like he only makes $35,000 a year.
She gets $100 a month for each kid (he has to pay for my 19 year old nephew until he's out of school) and $200 in spousal support. So far, he's missed that last two months of child support and even though he's supposed to send it to child services and they send it to my sister, they've got such a huge caseload that they won't get involved until he misses several months. Trying to provide for 6 kids on $800 a month his difficult. She has a part time job at a goat dairy farm and can occasionally give a private lesson at the dojo she used to attend.
She doesn't have anything extra like cable, except for Internet because one of her children does high school over the Internet. She struggles and needs the extra time and help my sister can give her one-on-one. She gets food stamps and medical & dental insurance through the low income health plan in our state. She didn't want nor ask for cash and housing assistance. However, she may have to accept the latter because her ex has decided to let the bank foreclose on the house. She never expected to be in this situation, either. It's not always so cut and dried. Were there not this safety net, I don't know what she would've done. We help her as much as we can, but everyone I know is struggling now.
Cindie
