If you havent a DH at home very often because of his work issues or your a Single Mom who can you count on to help you out with your family, practically or financially?

I cant count on anyone financially it is me and the buck stops here. (thought at the back of it all if I was really short my Mom would help)

She was there when they boys were younger and I needed to work and no longer had live in house help (you cant leave a child alone here under 16 years old)

My brother will stand with me at school functions if I needed someone or I thought James might turn up. Now Tadhg will come with me for Conor

The State does provide some assistance for people under a certain income but Im just outside that

I dont mind working outside the home too much but I really really miss another person to share the raising of the boys with me. They need more than a mother

Anyone willing to share how they manage?

I don't have help financially either. I try to sqeeze all of our expenses out of my salary, which isn't much, but too much for any kind of assistance I have found out. If I am really in a bind, I can go to my church...they already help with the latchkey payment for me..which helps out so much. I am grateful for that so much!

My parents will help out most of the time with other things, like fixing stuff, but I have to pay for it all and then my dad will usually fix it half way.

I'm an independent sort of gal, I don't mind usually, being at home alone. I work outside the home, but the thing I desire the most and so desperately want is to mother my children and not have someone else do it. The times that I miss having someone the most, is when I have to call on my dad or mom to do something like fix my car or something like that. This just happened over the weekend and I felt horrible, it was only a loose cable to the battery, but my dad had to drive 70 miles out of his way for me.

I would rather be alone though, than be with someone and be miserable. I am alot happier now than I was married.

Amazingly for me, the biggest help has come from my former in-laws. My MIL watches my DS every Sunday afternoon for a few hours so I can run errands, do chores or just have some 'me' time. Last year my FIL mowed my lawn several times and did some other yard work stuff - without being asked. They also watch my DS whenever I'm working late. I was married for 13 years and these people were never this nice to me!!

I have people I've been friends with for over 20 years so I can call on them for emotional support but most are single, never married and childless so they don't really 'get' a lot of my problems - but are willing to at least listen.

Financially it's all me. I would never ask anyone else for help unless we were truly on the verge of being homeless. I really live very frugally so that I can have a lot of savings in the bank in case some financial crisis did happen. In an extreme case, my dad would help out financially but I wouldn't ask unless absolutely desperate. My former DH does pay (a little) child support so that does help. I too make just a tiny bit over the income guidelines for any assistance.

I hate asking for help but the last year has taught me to do it when I needed to for the sake of both my son and my own sanity.

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Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.

It sometimes make me wonder how poor do we really have to be in order to get any kind of assistance??? It's really hard to make ends meet for alot of people and it seems that the people always make just above the set income for assistance....