#childhood poverty

[guilty-feminist]

[1zashreena1]

What do you consider growing up middle class?

I am going to answer as honestly and sincerely as I can based on my own experience

If your parents told you to just focus on your studies instead of get a job because they need your help to pay the electric bill

If you were ever gifted a car of any age/maintenance state

If college was a given assumption and not a silly kid pipedream

If you had an icemaker, central air, and washer-dryer

If you didn't use every last edible centimeter of fruits and vegetables

If you paid someone else to clean your house

If you could get new glasses AND see the dentist in the same year

If ordering pizza was a routine event rather than a special occasion

If your back to school shopping consisted of completely new clothing

If you had hobbies that cost money or required your parents to invest time and effort (like traveling to tournaments or getting you specific gear/equipment)

You took a family vacation more then twice growing up and those vacations weren't just visiting extended family a little ways away because staying with them is free

You went on a class/school trip

You flew anywhere as a child

You had a passport

Your parents didn't hoard extra prescription meds so that the next time you got sick you could just take the leftovers and not require paying for another round of Dr visit and pharmacy costs

You had more than 1 bathroom in your home

You were allowed to pick something out every time you went grocery shopping

You didn't really worry about how you were perceived when walking into stores/restaurants because you weren't desperately hoping that no one could tell your financial status from the state of your clothes

You didn't have to learn how to run a household by 16 because you had parents who could afford to be home and awake to do that for you

Your only hope of escaping your hometown and breaking free wasn't selling your entire existence to a deeply disturbing national war machine by enlisting in the military or similarly selling yourself by marrying rich

The best paying jobs available weren't physically damaging or dangerous (like how I destroyed my back unloading trucks because it paid way more than cashiering or waiting tables or how I knew multiple people doing construction at the risk of severe accidents or corrections to get paid more while risking violence)

You could afford to take time out/off when sick, whether it be the flu or full on depression

I'm sure I could think of more but just some things off the top of my head. Please remember that my experiences are directly related to the specific area/culture/time period in which I grew up and are not universal. Do not come for my parents who were doing the best they could with what they had, understand that me working to help pay the bills was while they were working 2 jobs and 70 hours a week simultaneously, they were not abusing me in this regard, it was just our reality. Also, on that last point, I am not shaming people that can't or don't work for whatever reason, I am stating that the option of recuperating in peace was simply not available to me, and I was previously diagnosed with major depression, have attempted suicide multiple times, and am now known auDHD with pmdd. So I understand the need but could never have it (and yes this has resulted in huuuuge life problems for me).

I am lower middle class now at 38 because I was able to put myself back thru school twice while still working and "married above my social station" (lol) and my partner has been able to take care of me in ways I considered as fairy tale movie stuff (like pay for my health insurance so I could get cancer treatment). I could not have done so without them. So I get it. I do take time off now, I do have a passport and take international vacations, I do get my glasses AND contacts at the same time, I do buy myself new clothes and even expensive purses, I do get necessary medical care. Yes I am still a little bitter and I do have permanent damage/issues from this stuff. And don't get me wrong, I had a lot of privilege in other ways and I know it. But what I came from is part of who I am and that's just reality.

Here, have cat rewards for making it to the end

[amarisbella21]

CHIP’s Contribution To Reducing Childhood Poverty

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plays a vital role in addressing childhood poverty by providing essential healthcare coverage to low- and moderate-income families. Since its inception in 1997, CHIP has focused on improving health outcomes for children who may not qualify for Medicaid but still face significant financial barriers to accessing healthcare. By ensuring that children receive necessary medical services, CHIP contributes to reducing childhood poverty and promoting overall well-being.

Access to Essential Health Services

CHIP provides comprehensive health insurance coverage that includes routine check-ups, immunizations, dental care, mental health services, and emergency care. Access to these essential services is critical for children’s physical and mental health, allowing them to grow and develop without the limitations imposed by untreated health issues. When children receive timely medical care, they are less likely to experience severe health complications that can impede their ability to succeed in school and life.

Alleviating Financial Burdens

Healthcare costs can be a significant financial burden for families living in poverty. Many low-income families forego necessary medical treatment due to high out-of-pocket expenses associated with private health insurance. CHIP alleviates this financial strain by offering low-cost or no-cost coverage, making healthcare accessible to families who might otherwise be unable to afford it. By reducing healthcare expenses, CHIP enables families to allocate their limited financial resources toward other necessities, such as housing, food, and education, thus alleviating poverty.

Supporting Educational Achievement

Health and education are closely linked, and children’s health significantly impacts their academic performance. Health issues such as chronic illness, developmental disorders, and untreated mental health conditions can hinder a child’s ability to learn and participate in school. By providing access to preventative and therapeutic services, CHIP helps ensure that children are healthy and ready to learn. Improved health outcomes lead to better attendance rates, higher academic achievement, and ultimately greater opportunities for future success. This educational support can break the cycle of poverty by empowering children to pursue higher education and stable employment.

Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being

Mental health is a critical component of overall health, yet it is often overlooked, especially in low-income communities. CHIP recognizes the importance of mental health services and includes coverage for behavioral health care, including counseling and therapy. By addressing mental health issues early, CHIP helps children develop coping skills, improve their social interactions, and enhance their emotional resilience. This focus on mental well-being contributes to healthier, more productive individuals who can contribute positively to society.

Reducing Health Disparities

CHIP plays a crucial role in reducing health disparities among children from diverse backgrounds. By providing equitable access to healthcare services, CHIP helps level the playing field for low-income families, ensuring that children receive the same quality of care as their more affluent peers. This focus on equity is essential for breaking the cycle of poverty and promoting social mobility.

Strengthening Families and Communities

By supporting the health of children, CHIP indirectly strengthens families and communities. When children are healthy, parents can work more effectively and pursue better job opportunities without the burden of worrying about their children's healthcare needs. CHIP eligibility in PA is designed to include low-income families, ensuring that children from diverse backgrounds receive the healthcare support they need. This focus on children's health can lead to improved economic stability for families, which contributes to broader community resilience and vitality.

Conclusion

CHIP is a vital resource in the fight against childhood poverty. By providing comprehensive healthcare coverage, alleviating financial burdens, supporting educational achievement, promoting mental well-being, and reducing health disparities, CHIP contributes to healthier families and communities. As we continue to address the complex challenges of poverty, ensuring robust support for programs like CHIP is essential for creating a more equitable and prosperous society where every child has the opportunity to thrive.

[xtrablak674]

Never asked for a thing

Noticing that there had been some manicuring of the landscape around the edge of the road that served as a bike, pedestrian and jogging path, I recalled my first Summer Youth Employment job where it seemed I was working under the Parks Department's purview.

We did similar kind of clearings of paths in this area in the Bronx near a roadway that headed towards the Bronx Botanical Gardens. But the early job wasn't on my mind, what was the monies I made that year and what had become of them. I am sure that my grandparents put those funds into the investments that would become my college dowery. The thing that struck me as sort of odd, was I don't recall asking for a penny of it.

This is something you may not know about growing up living below the poverty level, you learn very quickly not to ask because we you know we just don't have it. I learned this lesson in the Shop-Rite watching my younger brothers beg for the sweet sugary cereal that they had probably seen on television. I had grown out of that behavior I had learned that isn't what you do. Mom would get upset and sad and start talking about making ends meat, it would take me a lifetime to learn what she was really saying. I am sure as a single working parent taking care of three tender-aged boys was a task in itself just keeping them fed, clothed and sheltered.

We took hand-me-down toys from the whyte children who lived in some upper floor in our building never complaining, because second-hand toys were better than no toys at all. My home never looked like my friends Robert's house with posters on the walls, shelves, all the latest toys and his own furniture and desk in the room he shared with his older brother in his middle-class home where his mother was a homemaker.

Our room included our mom's six drawer dresser made from compressed wood, with a mirror and three steel-framed beds reclaimed from a closing nunnery. Other than the blue-green paint no other decoration adorned the room. This was something I always noticed about the households of the poor, they seem to alway lack personal expression or future expectation. These spaces always seemed to live in the current moment not knowing if they would actually ever survive, they lacked permanence. I guess that is what being poor is, living in the present, not being able to afford the past and forsaking a future which may have more of the same.

All of this just made me more aware of my behavior in my grandparents home, I don't recall asking for anything, other than wanting my own phone line, which I was told the building couldn't support. I recall being hungry as a teenager and just got a job so I could just feed myself, and have money in my pocket that I earned. I never requested or asked for a Nintendo, a bubble goose coat or those fly new sneakers that everyone else was wearing.

I just accepted what I was given. Understanding when you don't have it makes no sense to even ask. I was now living in an upper middle-class household but I wasn't told this, my grandmother acted as if every penny was going to run away, making sure she never paid full price for anything, whether it be groceries or clothes for her ever growing grand-child.

I guess this is a good thing for future me, since I inherited her estate and have been living off of it for the last four years. I am very curious what kind of child would I have been if I had actually been able to want and need things like any other affluent child in a first world country. I am also curious about what kind of adult this makes me. And how does all of this still influence the kind of choices I make about the things that I purchase and the things that I want to purchase. How does depravity shape our identities and influence our future and present selves?

I can't say I have the answers to these questions, but will continue to ponder them. And feel blessed that I made it though, thank goddess I made it through.

[Photo by Brown Estate].

[wausaupilot]

Wausau-area man nears goal to erase local student lunch debt

A Wausau-area man is edging closer to his goal of paying off student debt for kids in the Wausau and D.C. Everest School District, through a crowdsourced fundraising effort.

Wausau Pilot & Review A Wausau-area man is edging closer to his goal of paying off student debt for kids in the Wausau and D.C. Everest School District, through a crowdsourced fundraising effort. Yauo Yang is a pastor who was born in a Thailand refugee camp and moved to Wausau in the 1980s with his family. The Wisconsin National Guard veteran has been active in serving the community for years.…

[severussnapemylove]

Sometimes I wonder if JKR even realises she wrote Snape as a victim of sexual assault. Because he unambiguously is, and she writes him as traumatised by the incident. So it seems mad to suggest that she might not have thought through the implications of her own writing, but if she did get it, I am baffled by how sympathetic she remains to James. Harry is never really made to confront how vile his actions were, because he looks for comfort from Remus and Sirius rather than telling Hermione who would react in horror and disgust, and he gets to skip over it completely in The Prince’s Tale. JKR clearly considers James a hero, and has confirmed that in interviews. She’s even more sympathetic to Lily, who is portrayed as an absolute paragon of goodness, morality and virtue, despite her being attracted enough to James *after* he publicly commits sexual assault on a less privileged kid to marry him! What a malfunctioning moral compass. JKR also has no sympathy at all for Tom Riddle Sr, who is a victim of rape, and his rapist Merope Gaunt, who is herself strongly implied to be a victim of incestual abuse, is condemned by Dumbledore and the narrative not for what she did to Tom but for not being as courageous as nice, pretty, middle class Lily Evans because Merope committed the crime of…dying in childbirth. The only conclusions I can draw from this is that JKR is the sort of ´feminist’ who doesn’t believe men can be the victims of sexual crimes, and that deep down she thinks being a member of the underclass who can’t drag themselves out of it alone is indicative of moral failure.

This! All of this!

I don't think she puts it together at all. She's incredibly tone deaf about a lot of the abuse she puts these characters through. And with the blasé attitude she has about male victims of SA in the books definitely goes along her brand of toxic radical "feminism". It looks like she just doesn't recognise the severity of what happens to these characters. On top of Severus's attack and Tom Riddle Sr, remember that Ron was roofied with love spell that was intended for Harry, and Moaning Myrtle is incredible predatory towards the boys. Sadly, this attitude carries over from the author to a chunk of the fandom too. I've seen so much dismissiveness of the assaults against the male characters, especially Severus. And it's even more disappointing when I see people who have experienced abuse saying that what Severus endured "didn't count" as abuse. Had someone today on another platform having an absolute meltdown at me, saying that what happened in SWM wasn't sa, and that he wasn't traumatised from his abuse and if his anger was caused by trauma then why wasn't Harry the same. Seriously, you can't tell another person that what they experienced wasn't "bad enough to be abuse", that's a very warped mentality. Survivors are supposed to support each other, not belittle each other's trauma. Also, what book did they read that they think Harry doesn't have issues from the life he endured? He has different issues than Severus, yes, because he had different life experiences and everyone's reactions to trauma are different.

"Merope Riddle chose death in spite of a son who needed her, but do not judge her too harshly, Harry. She was greatly weakened by long suffering and she never had your mother's courage."

WTF is this!!!??? This is just plain victim blaming. "Your mothers' courage"? Lily had supportive, loving parents, was loved by her peers, admired by her teachers, had a very comfortable, secure life. Merope was physically and mentally abused for her whole life. They really criticized the poverty stricken, abuse victim for not being as "strong" as the Mary Sue of the Wizarding World??? Toxic as hell. Personally, as someone who has dealt with self-harm, mental illness and generational trauma in my family, this attitude of "they weren't strong enough" is nauseating and infuriating.

There really is a disturbing trend of extreme poverty equalling a dead-end life with no hope. Which is again an extremally toxic and judgmental attitude and a very dangerous message to put in a book aimed to children. The attitude towards abuse, poverty and indecent assault of men is beyond problematic, not only in the books but in far too many members of the fandom.

I could rant more but this will go on for pages.

[morganbritton132]

Do the boys do anything for Easter? I feel like Eddie would hide eggs with treats in it for Ozzy to hide.

Eddie had only been living with Wayne for a few months when their neighbor across the way came knocking on their door. She was a single mother with two unruly children and always tried to flirt with Wayne when he was leaving for work.

The way Wayne tells it, she’s organizing an Easter egg hunt for the kids in the trailer park. Ain’t no reason why they shouldn’t get to have the same experiences as better off kids just ‘cause the price of eggs went up a bit. If the Munsons can afford it, she’d appreciate if they donated.

Wayne’s seen Eddie’s notebooks – there are more drawings in them than school work – and thought he might get a kick out of decorating eggs. He even went out and bought a dye kit.  Eddie was a little too old for something like that, but he could see an olive branch when it was being extended.

Him and Wayne hadn’t yet found their footing with each other, but Wayne was making an effort. No one has ever done that before, so Eddie accepted with one exception, “You gotta paint them with me.”

They boil eggs on the stove and argue about how long you’re supposed to keep them on for. It turns out that Wayne is just as meticulous with his artwork as Eddie is because they spent hours painting and dip-dying eggs. Wayne even broke out an old paint set he had so they could use actual paintbrushes.

Eddie painted a dragon on one egg and an orc on another one. Wayne painted Tweety Bird on one egg and Garfield on another. They were a big hit at the egg hunt (even though Wayne insisted that Eddie participate and he wiped the floor with the other kids).

The extent of Easter in the Harrington house was: Get dressed, go to church, don’t embarrass anybody. That was it. They didn’t do a big dinner. There was no Easter Bunny visit. They never stayed long enough after church services to participate in the church’s easter egg hunt. When he got older, he’d go to Tommy’s, but they then they were too old for the fun Easter traditions.

When Steve taught second grade, he would buy candy and make Easter baskets for his students. He would organize an Easter egg hunt with the other second grade teachers with – much to Eddie’s supreme disappointment – plastic eggs. He was more disappointed to learn that middle schoolers don’t have parties.

So the first Easter after Steve got Ozzy, Eddie was celebrating Easter the right way.

The whole holiday is still kind of lost on Steve, but he’s entertained Eddie enough to just go along with it when he’s this excited about something.

The first year, they learn very quickly that you should not let your dog eat a lot of boiled eggs (also Eddie forgot when he put all of them and Steve nearly killed him). Every year after, Eddie has gotten more and more elaborate and Ozzy gets more and more excited. Steve has woken up to this dog prancing in place with excitement, waiting for them to get up to see what the ‘Easter Bunny’ left him.

A couple years ago, they started putting treats and snacks in plastic eggs and hiding them around the house for Ozzy to find. And then when they got Joan, they started including catnip and toy mice in some of the eggs.

Steve and Eddie continue their tradition of buying each other the most fucked up chocolate bunnies they can find.

[scavengedluxury]

Winter clothes, 1928. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive.

[crimson-and-clover-1717]

‘Did everyone get cake?’ 🍰 I am continually and utterly fascinated by Ed’s psychology around food

[mindblowingscience]

A one-off experience of poverty is enough to impact on a child's development, according to a new study conducted by sociologists in Trinity College Dublin. Parenting stress and reduced ability to invest in healthy activities, such as reading to young children, have been identified by the researchers as the key factors impacting children's development. The study used data for more than 7,000 children from the Growing Up in Ireland 2008 birth cohort, tracking them at ages 9 months, 3 years, 5 years and 9 years. This covered the period from 2008 to 2017, when the living standards of many Irish families fluctuated with the recession and recovery. Reporting an experience of poverty at just one of these interviews was classified as "one-off poverty" while those who reported poverty at three or four interviews were in "persistent poverty". The research investigated the connections between exposure to poverty in early to middle childhood and children's cognitive and behavioral difficulties assessments at different ages.

Continue Reading.

[16woodsequ]

Something that's hard to articulate, but I think about sometimes when I see Tumblr polls about culture and childhood, is the way you fit into a strange 'I missed out on this but it was there' box when you grow up poor.

Like, did you ever have a flip phone? No, but my classmates did. Did you ever play a DS? No, but my classmates did. Which of these classic shows did you watch? We couldn't afford cable. What was your first video game console? Well, my friend had a Game Cube. Did you have MySpace? We didn't have internet until I was in grade seven.

I don't know. It's just something I think about.

[grimvestige]

Since art fight is soon, Satoru gets an updated ref sheet! :3

I included dango this time since the party has learned he really likes dango.

[kavehpilled]

there is a visible difference between people that grew up poor and people that grew up fortunate and it always stands out around the holidays

[iamunabletothinkofablogname]

tw vent (mostly in tags)

Ah yes, the violent thoughts of revenge are back

[juniperandjustice]

Telling someone who has suffered horrible abuse and been through many kinds of hell that you can hardly even imagine much less understand or relate to, that “self-love is important” and to call a suicide hotline when they express their struggles and talk about their reality is dismissive, invalidating, silencing, and hurtful.  It doesn't help anything.

So is telling them that *you* would never say “FML”, when you haven't had the hardships and traumas they have, when you aren't stuck in an abusive relationship and financially controlled, kept from getting medical care.  Showing off your abled-ness. The opportunities and support you have access to. Lucky you, look at your privilege.  You've been sheltered and secure your whole life.  Other people haven't been so lucky.

[fals3nd]

beth is perfectly content watching from the sidelines. she always has been, even before her breath became too faint after dancing for it to be a necessity she sit to the side during balls. her fingers tap in time to the sound of the music and she wonders, idly, if she could play the tune on her pianoforte. "hello," the second-youngest miss march says with a small smile, "are you not interested in dancing this evening?" @proditeur