[serious] They say everyone we meet is fighting a battle we know nothing about... so we should always be kind. What battle are you fighting?

I have ptsd, anxiety, and depression. My kids were taken from me due to my ex landlord not making neccessary repairs on our home. (No ac or refrigerator for 2 months, then our home got infested with bugs because they don't do pest control. We begged for help and called around everywhere. No one would help us until it was too late) After the kids were gone, the landlord forced us out and we were homeless for 2 weeks. This landlord did the same thing to 4 other families we know of. We had to travel 200 miles round trip to maintain our jobs. Finances were a disaster. My husband was in between jobs and we couldn't afford anything.

On the up side, I was finally able to get the help i needed for my mental health issues. We live in a much better place, no bugs, and the landlords are much better. We are getting our kids back next February. In leaving the dump we were living in, though, we lost everything. We left most of our furniture and other things because bugs had gotten into all of it. I don't have a vacuum or hardly any furniture. We even had to get rid of a lot of the kids' stuff.

The whole thing has made me feel like a shit mother. Even our attorneys say we shouldn't have lost our kids over it. There was no abuse, neglect, drugs, or violence in the home. The case worker even said it was just a case of horrible timing and not enough money to fix it. We won't have the kids home for Christmas, and we didn't have them for Thanksgiving. My son said it wasn't a happy Thanksgiving because he wasn't with us and our other two kids aren't old enough to understand yet.

I've had to hide this from everyone because of shame. No one knows what's going on, just that the kids are with family until we get on our feet. I feel so isolated and alone. It's a horrible place to be.

/r/AskReddit Thread