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When We Slid Into Poverty, I Became A Bad Mom
The pressures of poverty came as a shock, and climbing up out of that hole felt impossible, even with all the advantages I had going in.
I once saw someone explain the difference between “broke” and “poor” as a measure of time.
If you are out of money, but you know for sure when your next paycheck is coming, and it will be enough to pay for your necessities, you’re broke. If you are out of money, but you have no idea when or if your next meal will come along, you’re poor. Living paycheck to paycheck is to be chronically broke, and is absolutely stressful, but to live in poverty adds a truly damaging level of uncertainty and terrifying lack of necessities that cannot be compensated for.
After years of stability, then some lean years, and two years of stability again, my husband and I found ourselves suddenly poor. Not broke. We’d been broke before and it was stressful for days or weeks at a time, but in late 2014 and most of 2015, we were poor.
In mid-2014, my husband’s law firm failed. The reasons for that failure are complicated, and not the point of this story. I was pregnant, we experienced a failed adoption, and we were forced to…
