Dang Them!

**I decided I needed to edit this post because I broke my rule about not posting about anybody specific who could possibly see this.

This past year has been full of changes for us, and it turns out, the changes aren’t done yet. Schwan’s is turning out to be a bit more than we anticipated. For the past month or so, Chris has been gone from about 8 am until 10 pm Monday through Friday, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. That just does not work very well for us and the 6 kids we currently have. So we’ve been exploring other options. But lately, I’ve been wondering why do we even bother?

I get so tired of seeing people do the absolute minimum that they can just so they can continue to recieve welfare. I actually watched a documentary once where one of the single mothers interview said that she has the "right" to be a stay at home mom for her child. I hear so many people complaining about Human Services and what they expect people to do…like work. (Oh, and the term "work" is used very loosely, as that can mean "looking" for a job, which can mean putting on your application that you may have a conflict with jail in the near future) Now, I’m just saying, if you want to be a stay at home mom, you should probably wait to have a child until you’re in a stable relationship with a partner who can support you and the baby.

If it was a "right" for people to stay home with their kids, there wouldn't be anybody paying into the welfare system to support them. I get that it is a very fine line that the welfare departments are walking. Yes, the children absolutely need to be supported, as it is not their fault who they were born to. But the problem with that system would be the reason my youngest 3 children are so close in age. If you lose your benefits because the county took your child away, the only way to get those benefits back right away is to get pregnant again...because then you get benefits throughout your enire pregnancy.

So this brings me back to my point about why do Chris & I even bother to both work? If he quit at Schwan’s and we just both ran the existing daycare, we should be able to get all kinds of welfare benefits, right? And before I get a bunch of hate mail, I am NOT against welfare, or food stamps or any of that. They are all important programs that people have a legitimate need for. But it was never meant to be a permanent source of income for people who just don’t want to work. And I really get irritated when people who are receiving benefits bitch about being expected to actually look for a job.

And so, Chris will continue putting in his time a Schwan’s until one of us can find something better. Dang my parents for teaching me that I actually had to work to earn a living and support my family!