When I was young(er?), I pretended to be lots of different things: A career woman in an office, the perfect mother, a missionary, and many other things as well. One of the things all those pretend careers had in common, was that I never knew want or need. Even when I pretended to be a misssionary, God always provided.
When I got older, and got a boyfriend I actually considered marrying, I never thought of where the money would come from. I just knew it came every week in the form of a paycheck.
It never occurred to me, that even though I was willing and able to work, I might not be able to make ends meet.
After I got married, it was a couple of years before the real world intruded upon my life. It was after my first child was born, that things got a little dicey financially. At one point we had our phone turned off. But I was always able to eat, and have a place to live.
Now that I'm older, and run my own business, I see others who are struggling every day to make ends meet.
One in particular, is a single mom of one, who got pregnant at 19. She went on to nursing school, became an LPN. After a few months of working as an LPN, she realized she would never be able to make ends meet on that salary, and she applied to a school with a reputation for turning out fantastic RN's. She got a scholarship, and financial aid for housing, etc. Her first year went well, and she's back for the summer.
Here is where the real world intrudes: her financial aid, transferred to the county her college is in, is not good back in her home county. Even though she qualifies, it would take 4 to 6 weeks to transfer the financial aid back here, and then another 4 to 6 weeks to transfer it back to the county her school is at. Um, that's the whole summer. So, what is she supposed to do for daycare?
As for me, I'm faced with two options: tell her to make other arrangements for daycare, or reduce my prices for daycare so low that they don't cover expenses. I already know what I'm going to do, of course. Been in that situation myself.
But it really rubs me the wrong way to see someone who is honestly trying to make it, being screwed by the system of the wonderful government of Illinois.
I suppose that there's nothing anyone can do to fix the messed up club of money-hungry, greedy, do-nothings we here call a state government, but I'm sure gonna try next November.
