I am Ranting!

Day 22, Wednesday: Rant about something. Get up on your soapbox and tell us how you really feel. (a pet peeve, a current event, a controversial topic, something your husband or roommate or neighbor or boss does that really ticks you off)


What is it that really ticks me off? I have many things that do. I am really ticked off about how the mother of my grand kids can live less than 2 miles away and never see her kids. I am ticked off that my son, their father, is right there by her side. They haven't even talked to them on the phone for almost a year now. I cannot explain this. I do not know how a mom can live this close and not even want to know how they are doing. Or see them. Or touch them. I would have stood in front of a firing squad before I did not get to see my kids. But that is not my rant for today. Because I cannot change that. And I know that the parents are the ones who will really pay for this in the future. The kids are dealing with it. And we have moved on. Or we are working on it!

My rant is all of the young girls that are on welfare now. What is going on here? Why are they standing in line to collect  these fine benefits that used to be for only the poorest of the poor. When I was growing up it was embarrassing to be on welfare. No one talked about it. And you went slinking into the grocery store hoping that no one you knew would be there to see your mom pull out those paper food stamps to pay for the groceries. But now days it is like a badge of honor. At the last nursing home where I worked there was a large number of girls under the age of 30 working AND collecting welfare benefits. Their starting wage at the home, as a CNA ,was more than I started out as a RN when I first started. But that is considered under the poverty level now, I guess, cause they all get some kind of help from the government. The things I used to hear when we would sit around and chat during our down times was enough to curl my hair.

• These girls planned to have babies while they were getting medical care provided by the State because they wouldn't have hospital bills later when they started out their married lives.
• They discussed how to move in their boyfriends and hide the extra income from the State so that they wouldn't lose any benefits.
• They taught each other ways to avoid getting full-time hours (like calling in sick X number of hours a week) so that they would have less income to report.
• They used their WIC (women, infant, children) benefits to get as much of the free food at the grocery store as they could. Even if they didn't use it. (I heard one girl talk about how much her family hated cheese, but that she always got all that they would allow her to get each time). Then I watched them bring in WIC items: baby formula, juice, dairy products, rice, beans, cheese etc. and sell it to others that could not qualify for WIC. They sold it at half what you could get it at the grocery store.
• Most all of these girls maintained highlights and low lights in their hair. They wore manicured artificial nails. Most of them sported new tattoos during the time that I worked with them and they were getting benefits from the State. They had the latest in cell phones. They drove nice cars. 
• Moms and dads of these girls helped them perpetrate this lie to the State. 
• The State doesn't have enough money to hire investigators to look into these practices (we know this because we called to report these welfare chicks).

I wish that it wasn't this way. But it is. And I don't know how to change it. I am teaching my granddaughter to be strong and independent and to NOT rely on the system. I am teaching her that if she can't afford something then she has to wait to get it. I am teaching her to value her body and to not use it to have babies just to earn her an income. I am hoping that she will find a nice young man someday and get married first. And plan babies when she can afford them. I am teaching her that having a baby is NOT a right. It is a privilege. And it cost money. And she will feel proud if SHE pays for that baby and does not expect the State to do it. And most important, I am teaching her that WE are the STATE. We pay for all of those girls who have babies and cannot afford them. WE pay for the WIC program and all that food that the 'welfare' girls are selling to others at their jobs. WE pay for their highlights and their fingernails and their tattoos. I don't want her to be a welfare chick.

I welcome your comments. Tell me what do you think about the system today that is allowing this?