This is what it’s like to be poor

Kinja user KillerMartinis provides some perspective on what it’s like to live in poverty.

Rest is a luxury for the rich. I get up at 6AM, go to school (I have a full courseload, but I only have to go to two in-person classes) then work, then I get the kids, then I pick up my husband, then I have half an hour to change and go to Job 2. I get home from that at around 1230AM, then I have the rest of my classes and work to tend to. I’m in bed by 3. This isn’t every day, I have two days off a week from each of my obligations. I use that time to clean the house and soothe Mr. Martini and see the kids for longer than an hour and catch up on schoolwork. Those nights I’m in bed by midnight, but if I go to bed too early I won’t be able to stay up the other nights because I’ll fuck my pattern up, and I drive an hour home from Job 2 so I can’t afford to be sleepy. I never get a day off from work unless I am fairly sick. It doesn’t leave you much room to think about what you are doing, only to attend to the next thing and the next. Planning isn’t in the mix.

Her response to the first (agressively negative) comment is worth reading as well.

Update: We can’t have nice things on the Internet…looks like KillerMartinis was not exactly forthcoming with regard to her financial status. (thx, @j4)

Update: Michelle Goldberg at The Nation fleshes out KillerMartini’s back-story. (thx, @tkudo)

• money