All these people saying they should not have children they can’t afford. Well my parents could afford the 4 children they had… then a divorce happened. And my mom was uneducated and with 4 kids. She wasn’t going to give custody to my dad who was never at home and didn’t even ask for more than a weekend visit a month. My mom tried to shield us from the true situation of our finances but it’s VERY easy to know if you are poor. I mean… it’s Thanksgiving and we don’t have the giant meal at our table. She makes us lunches every day but they are so sad compared to everyone else. She make sure we had clothes and they were always clean. But she was rewashing all the time because we didn’t have a robust wardrobe. We shopped at goodwill. She cut back to beans and rice when she had to pay for a school related event/trip. She took on a paper route at 5am so I could be a cheerleader (in which the uniform was over $2000).

So yeah… I never asked for the $1 for ice cream. Was I guilted into it? Should I have been sheltered from our finances? My mom tried her best to hide it from us but kids aren’t dumb. And it’s really ugly to say someone shouldn’t have kids if they can’t afford them. and it’s equally ugly to imply all people would be okay with an abortion. And it’s equally ignorant to say parents should hide their financial situation from children. I agree some parents aren’t like my mom. But don’t assume all poor people are the same.