MinnieLovesMickey12
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2012
But why does that bug you so much? We've had cellphones as our only phone since '02, way before we could truly afford them, and it's because our landline service was costing stupid amounts of money, was always being charged erroneously, and wasn't helpful when away from the home (obviously). Nowadays it's how many people have internet, which is helpful in many ways, even to those without enough money.
But hey, I grew up in a home where the dad left and almost never paid child support, it was just my mom working her fingers to the bone to help us, and she did her best. She did go on food stamps (I don't remember if there were food banks then, or in our area) and some form of welfare. And she did smoke because she was *addicted*, it was an addiction that started when she was 15, she was able to quit during her pregnancies but then she went back to it, and despite many tries she was never successful in quitting until she was 35 (and I was 10 and we had been off food stamps for a few years) and nearly died of an asthma attack. So she had groceries and cigarettes on the belt. She also had dog food. Because she had two big sled dogs from earlier in her life, and she wasn't willing to give them away or kill them during our personal economic downturn. She also wasn't working; figured that staying home with us for a couple years was good for us (she made a good decision there).
Whenever I read judgment of people who are getting aid of some kind, I think of us, and how absolutely bonafide my mom's reasons were for getting assistance, and I think "that person judging would have thought that the family I grew up in was doing something wrong", even though my mom was doing the absolute best she could, trying to make up for the decisions she made as a teen (smoking at 15, marrying at 17).
Not to make light of the situation you grew up in but a situation where an able bodied adult CHOOSES to stay at home and not work for a few years when they are perfectly capable of it but choose to let tax payers foot the bill for their life all the while continuing to buy cigarettes is not what I would call doing the best you can.
This is why we have such a system of abuse and ppl using welfare as a lifestyle choice instead of a hand up. If you are capable of working, and you don't work, and take government assistance, you are part of the very big problem.