Hey all,
I'm a new member just wandered on after looking for a place to talk to other struggling single mommmys like myself, anyhoo real quick about me, i'm 24 yrs old, mom to a 3 yr old boy, and amongst my struggles in life is to hold onto my dream of graduating college with a degree in fine arts dance. my question is, how realistic is it for me to go through this single mother exsperience with out being on all kinds of assistance??
Before i had my son i looked down on things like food stamps and other govt programs but now that im in my hole, im on housing assistance and im debating food stamps cause i was selling plasma for a long time so me and my son could have groceries,but have since come to my senses about the whole plasma selling thing
so how do you feel about govt assistance? and those of you on food stamps do you feel akward about using them? people in the store already stare me down when i pull out my WIC voucher at the store, but i digress, and i open it up for your comment

I am a dad with 4 kids 1 lives with me and 3 with their mom.

My whole life is for my kids, sometimes we have to make sacrifices, for them and ourselves.

The goverment programs your talking about, are for people like ourselves To help us get back on our feet and back into society. By what ever means. The guilty feeling you have, was never mean't for yourself. But for every person who manipulates the program and never pulls themselves out.

If you feel some one is looking down at you then you hold your head high and walk past them. With the knowledge this is a temperary thing and not to far into the future they may find themselves in the same boat.

I have not had to utilize these services but I work for a agency that supplies them to the community. If only you could understand how good it feels on the other side of the table knowing these services are going to people who need them and will be used for reasons that they were originally created for. You wouldn't have to ask this question.

So sister keep your eyes to the skies and do what you have to do to survive. In the near future you will be telling yourself "Oh God I'm glad I made the right choices."

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Originally posted by tiggy:
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sorry i forgot to reply (ooops) thank you for your kind words....i just hate when people who dont know my situation look at me like im some kind of low life or wanna be "welfare queen" im totally the opposite i wanna be if anything a successful person who raises a successful child and i want to get off assistance as soon as humanly possible so that i can just get on with my life

I've been single for about 3 years now. My ex has very little to do with the kids so it's just the three of us doing the best we can. My son started full day school this year and I just started college. Here in Denver the finances are tight to say the least. I found out after I got my place and started classes that when my parents said they would help me with expenses while I was in school it meant.... only if I never needed help. Shocking! Needless to say when I lost my job doing telemarketing and realized my ex didn't believe in child support I was in a bind. There is a two year waiting list for housing assistance here and trust me.... when you need to feed your children there is NOTHING wrong with food assistance. Here we have a Quest card. It looks like a credit card and is used in the same way. No one has to know but your kids need to eat....so forget pride and get the help your family needs. I've been told there are private grants available to all sorts of people for debts, school, business, etc. but I still haven't found one. I am however taking a technical writing class at school to improve my skills in the job place and in writing proposals for things such as grants :'D. It's filling my english requirement and will also help me in finding work while I'm finishing my degree. Nearly 1 semester down only 3.5 years to go.....hehehe.