A recently widowed woman with three children was forced to move her family into a one-bedroom apartment. Her two oldest now refuse to share a room, and she doesn’t know what to do.
Here’s what she had to say.
The woman has a boy and two girls. They are aged 16, 14, and 2, respectively. Due to a significant decrease in income, she found herself unable to afford the rent for her house and was forced to move her family into a much smaller one-bedroom apartment.
She said, “the bedroom is larger than the living room. I am able to fit two single beds into the bedroom, and the kids have space to store their clothes while still having the room divider in the middle. The living room is smaller. I currently have my youngest and my own clothes stored in the hallway due to lack of space.”
Before moving into this apartment, each of the children had their own personal room, so the mother understands this is a massive change for them.
“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 said.
The woman took this to heart and tried everything in her power to change the situation. She tried looking for a better-paid job and even considered getting a second one. Unfortunately, she cannot afford to pay for the two-year-old’s childcare if she isn’t at home.
Her two older children refuse to help in any way with caring for the little girl. “Is not their responsibility,” they said.
Left with no other options and feeling very hungry, the woman began collecting food from a local food bank.
“I’ve not been eating anything for two days a week, and I’ve just been telling the kids I’m trying out the fasting trend for weight loss purposes. But the truth is, I can’t afford to feed us all, and I have been using the food bank,” she said.
Previously, the woman had never used a food bank and is now very grateful for their existence as she wouldn’t have been able to feed her family otherwise, a fact that fills her with shame.
The woman asked the Reddit community if she really was in the wrong for forcing her two oldest children to share a bedroom. Should she be the one to share the living room with her boy and let the two girls sleep together instead?
Reading her story, the commenters were quick to advise her that she should share her struggles with her kids instead of keeping everything hidden.
One user said, “explain to the kids what is happening and that you are trying to fix the situation. Take them to the food bank with you. They need to know that you’re doing your best during a difficult time. You don’t need to hide this from them.”
Another person wrote, “they’re old enough to understand and likely will be helped by knowing what’s going on and why. You can’t shield them from this, but there’s a good chance you’ll get a better response from them if you include them in your decision-making that affects them.”
Finally, a third user responded, “my dad died when I was 11, and my brother was 9. My mom was upfront about any difficult decisions we had to make, and it made us more collaborative the entire time.”
What do you think? Was the woman wrong to make her two oldest children share a bedroom? Should she share the financial problems with them in hopes of making them understand their current living situation?
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Source: Reddit
