She’s Making Her Teen Son And Daughter Share A Room Because She Can’t Afford A Larger Home Right Now, But Her Teens Are Calling The Arrangement Unacceptable
Hearing stories of parents suddenly becoming widows and having to take care of their children on their own is so heartbreaking. This one is no exception.
One woman recently lost her husband, the father of their three children – a 16-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl, and a 2-year-old girl. He died unexpectedly, and she wasn’t prepared for the massive lifestyle changes she would have to make.
She and her kids were very dependent on her late husband’s income. It helped pay for a home where everyone was happy and each kid had their own room.
Now that they no longer have that support, she has to move her family to a much smaller space, a one-bedroom apartment.
She gave her two teenagers the only bedroom in the apartment while her toddler sleeps in the living room with her.
“I tried adding a privacy screen in the middle, so they feel like they have their own space, but they are telling me that this isn’t acceptable,” she explained. “Each of my kids used to have their own rooms, so this is a massive change for them.”
She empathizes with her children. Losing your dad and having to deal with a drastic lifestyle change on top of it sounds terribly difficult.
She wishes they understood all of the sacrifices she has made and everything she has to do to keep their family afloat.
For instance, she has been struggling to afford to feed herself and her kids and skips meals for 2 days out of the week.
Monkey Business – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
She has to get their groceries from a food bank. To shield her kids from just how grim that reality is, she tells them that she’s fasting to lose weight.
She already works one job and would get another, but her teenagers don’t want to watch their 2-year-old sister, and she can’t afford to take her to daycare.
She’s on a mission to give her children the happiest life possible, but she now realizes they need to start facing reality.
So she’s going to keep working on the room situation by switching up who sleeps where. Perhaps it’ll be better if all the girls sleep in the bedroom while her son takes the living room.
Either way, it’ll be tough, but she’s determined to get them through these hard times as a family.
“All this time, I did feel it would be unfair to put adult problems on my kids,” she said. “However, I will be giving them a surface-level talk about our finances. I’ll also be bringing them with me to the food bank. Hopefully, they’ll be more understanding.”
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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