The WM Parenting Connection

by Jennifer Fulks

Last week I explained a little bit about where we have been financially over the past few years, and this week I will attempt to explain the downward spiral.


The nature of our business is construction. We drill and pour concrete caissons for contractors. If you have ever been involved in this world you understand that it is either feast or famine to some extent, so when we began to slow down, it did not hit us that this would be the end. We made life work as we always did until the work would pick back up. This time however, the work did not come back; it just got to be less and less.

By the time December rolled around we knew we were in deep trouble. I think the only thing that got me through that month was the birth of my grandson and the fact that we were hosting dinner for 40 plus people for Christmas. I simply had too much going on to focus on a lack of money.

As I said before, my youngest child is almost 14 years old, he is very spoiled, and he was expecting a laptop among other things as a gift for Christmas. After bugging me non-stop for weeks, I finally snapped. I yelled out everything about not having any money and how he was behaving like a brat. I told him if he didn’t start showing appreciation for what he did have I was going to make him go work in a soup kitchen for the holidays.

I think that was probably the best thing I could have done for my son. I had been so busy trying to shield the kids from everything that was going on that I was putting an undo amount of stress on myself. I didn’t trust that my kids would be able to handle the reality of our situation. I learned not only could they handle it, but they could also help with the situation.

Since the time the kids have found out how much of a bind we are in, I have not heard one word about getting something new. I have not heard one complaint about not going out to eat like we used to. And most importantly, there has been no whining in our house!

We are still exploring our options as to how to proceed from here. We are trying hard not to move. If we are forced to move, we will be forced into much smaller accommodations. I do think this past year has made us a closer family and I have learned that my children are a lot stronger than I ever gave them credit for.

Roller Coaster Ride part II