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I believe the title says it all. |
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I curse and drink with the best of them. I'm blunt and honest and if you think that might offend you, too bad; don't read my entry. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** For those of you who are brave enough to continue: Thanks for stopping! Molly Jean   |
Topic for today? Other than my rant above about what my blog will be like?  What it’s like to have a complete change of lifestyle. Two years ago Gary walked through the mud room door on our newly purchased house and told me he’d been laid off. He was the only one working and therefore our ONLY source of income. I grew up with out much. I wore hand me downs from my cousins and never ate name brand cereal. I remember longing to eat Count Chocula like my friends and stare blankly at Sam the Tucan while I ate Froot Loops. Instead I got bag cereal. To this day I still don't eat the name brand crap. Now it's a health thing. I value my insides. This is unheard of to my poor hubby (the whole generic cereal and food thing). He grew up with out much either but decided his children, or child, would never have to go through it. Now it’s happened. I don’t know what it is in his psyche that thinks struggle is a horrible thing. It sucks, I’ll say that much, but to me it’s a character builder. I look at the kids I went to school with and how spoiled they were and I look at how Tyler acts when he gets what he wants. They’re brats! And say that with lots of love. We try to keep Tyler in the dark as much as possible with our financial situations. We all know that children will repeat just about anything with in their earshot. ("Molly and Daddy wrestle at night an aweful lot. And she makes weird noises."  )However, when your cable, phone and internet get turned off because you decided to pay the gas and electric instead, it’s a bit hard to keep things on the up and up. I remember realizing when I was little that we were poor. It’s demoralizing to a child to know that you will never have what everyone else does. But isn’t this what makes us better adults? To know what struggle is before we have to deal with it on our own? Where I went to high school the standard grad gift was a new car; and we aren’t just talking to new to them, brand spanking new. They were lined up outside the church where our ceremony was held with red bows on the tops of them like lemmings lined up to go over a cliff. What does this teach anyone? That my mom and dad will take care of me forever? I drove my POS Chrysler Sundance until I made enough money to buy a newer car. It was the same year just sportier and oil didn’t run out of it like a sieve. I get frustrated because Gary’s ex spoils Tyler rotten. He’s got an ipod, she gave him her old laptop, and he’s got every toy known to man. This doesn’t teach him anything. I’ve heard him say several time if I tell him that we can’t afford something, “well, I just ask my mom for it.”  He’s starting to change as he gets older though, and sees how his mother lives her life. We sat him down and discussed money with him, not everything just the basics. He understands that we can’t just drop cash on what ever we want anymore. (Which were usually car parts and dirtbikes. I told you I'm a redneck!) I tell him constantly that I can’t just go buy stuff at the grocery store when ever he wants, we have to wait on money to come in. I think the real reality check hit home when I was counting change out of my piggy bank to go to the grocery store. And the kid helped. He knew what I was doing and why, and he was excited that we could go and all he wanted was applesauce and graham crackers. Our usual trips end in frustrating arguments about why I can't buy $100 of junkfood for him to let go stale. It really warms my heart to see this kind of growth in him. He may not be mine but I’m his primary care giver. We have full custody and he’s only with his mother one day a week and every other weekend. She’s a yuppie that has to have the best of everything, all the way from her fake fingernails to her leased Beemer. Seeing Tyler grow to understand it’s not what you have but who you have with you is a great thing. Something that I hope he hold on to as he still grows and learns more about this world. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
Visit my portfolio http://mjtruex.Writing.Com/ |
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We just ate dinner and now we're relaxing watching Whodunit? on TV. It's the only reality show I can tolerate. They get killed off one by one so it makes it extra fun 
