My mother and I have had a very rocky relationship basically my entire life since I was 9 years old. We’re pretty much good now that I’m out of the house but that may only be because I’m several hours away so we don’t talk much. She was a single mother and was never really good at managing her money. Unfortunately she spent most of her paychecks at the bar. Every birthday and major holiday I would get money from relatives and I would always save it. Because she was bad with hers. She would frequently ask to borrow money from me. Her 9 year old daughter..whatever. I wanted to help and honestly if I didn’t borrow her the money then me and my two older brothers wouldn’t get food or whatever else we needed. We often went months at a time without electricity or water at home. The only time we would have it was in the winter because the electric company couldn’t legally let us live in our home with no heat in the middle of the freezing winters. So all summer spring and fall we would have no electricity or access to running water which meant no showers or cooking barely at all. I relied heavily on my friends and their families who would let me stay with them and who were very open. This went on until I was a sophomore in high school when someone in the trailer park had finally called Child Protective Services and my brother and I were put into a foster home as my oldest brother was away in college. It sucked but it was nice to have regular food and hot showers for the first time in years. I admit she stepped up and worked her ass off to get us out of there, and things were good for about a year until we got evicted from the house she was renting. Then we moved into a local motel that one of my friends family had owned. Having to share a single bedroom with a mom who works 3rd shift and sleeps all day, and an angry brother who screamed at the Xbox until 5am meant I rarely got any sleep as I was working 25 hours a week and going to high school to hopefully save some money for college. I ended up saving $2500 for school which was nice, since I got decent financial aid given my circumstances at home. Fast forward to two weeks into my first year of college and I realized that my bank account had been drained because yup, my mom had stolen it all. I didn’t speak to her for years after that but I’m over it all now.