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Lately, I've taken out a sheet of paper to list objects, circumstances, and people for which I'm grateful, not necessarily in that order. I have to do that because sometimes my moments as a single mother of two (one teen and one adult who still lives at home), a caregiver to elderly parents who live with me, and as a person who expects more of herself and life, I get edgy and properly pissed. So, when I read a post like "Frustration Nation" at Oh, And Another Thing, I don't judge, I empathize. Here are a few lines of her frustration with this economy.
I'm really just bummed out today. I'm better off than so many people, but right now, i just feel defeated.
I want Claire to grow up in a house with a yard, and I'm giving her a box apartment with no grass and loud, obnoxious neighbors.
I want Claire to be in the best daycare, so I put her there and can't afford it from week to week.
I want to give my mom and dad gifts and money so they can enjoy life for once, yet I bleed them dry because I can't manage my own expenses.
I park between a Lexus SUV and a Mercedes C-class at daycare, and my own humble Honda is still not paid off---a 6-year car loan to afford a Honda. (Kara at Oh, And Another Thing)
She and I are one of many Americans struggling to make ends meet for our families. I suspect many of my readers could join in these laments. We're hearing that we're facing the worst economic crisis since The Great Depression, and we're hoping that is an exaggeration. As single mothers, Kara and I may be hit even harder financially than two-parent households, two-parent households are struggling as well.
I heard an NPR story today, "Credit Crunch Puts Family on a Downward Slide," about the Leschinskys:
· The kitchen table in David And Deborah Leschinsky's house is not a great place to have a conversation these days; the fridge, that has been broken for months, now chortles and whines so loud, sometimes it's hard to hear each other talking. Even worse, the milk and other foods routinely go bad; Deborah says the kids have learned to smell before they sip.
Years ago, the Lechinskys would have replaced the fridge immediately. That was when they were both making good salaries in high tech. They bought a four bedroom house in a great neighborhood of Brookline, Mass., vacationed in Hawaii, and gave to several charities. (Listen at NPR)
The story moves forward and tells how the Leschinkys have slipped from being upper middle class, per David's description, to middle class and are now possibly slipping into something "lower." The family's feeling the sting of a slowdown in business with people holding the purse strings tighter and banks bricking over their vaults, afraid to lend money.
It's part of NPR's Kitchen Sink Series through which they're covering families hit by this economic mess. I hear similar stories at work, where I serve customers buying high-end beauty products. People spill all kinds of stuff to a stranger on the phone. "I want to be removed from your mailings. I have to choose between face cream and food." Or "I'm cutting up my credit cards. My bank's been taken over," and even "We're losing the house. My God! We're losing the house. I can't afford this."
It's not only scary for them, it's scary for me. It's a short walk from customers cutting back to my job being cut, and I need it. I require more than a freelance income source to make ends meet.
But my problems are tiny when I consider Gary Staton's situation. He's the widower and father of 10 who recently fell into the spotlight when he abandoned nine of his children at a Nebraska safe haven. He said he couldn't afford them, and social service experts think America may see more people abandoning offspring due to job loss or home foreclosure.
We hear about families losing homes and we think homeowner, but sometimes it's a renter impacted by foreclosure, and unlike being the homeowner, renters don't see it coming. They just get home one day and find that they have no home. That the homeowner's been collecting the
