July 13, 2009
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I am not ignorant!
Nor am I lazy or illiterate. I do not sit about all day long watching TV and living off government handouts. My home and my children are clean and well behaved. I endeavor each day to make my husbands paycheck go as far as I possibly can.
My husband isn’t ignorant either. He works hard for the wages that he earns. The callouses on his hands rival the callouses on the butts of those who ride a desk all day long and earn far more than he does. But if it wasn’t for men like my husband all of the desk jockeys in the world and their families wouldn’t have a thing to eat.
My husband isn’t uneducated and unable to get a “better” job. He has a bachelors degree in Physics but chose to stay on the family farm so that when his father got old he could still work the farm without having to retire and die from not having anything to do. I am also not uneducated. I am a Licensed Practical Nurse, but I have chosen to stay at home a care for my children rather than turning over my responsibility over to someone else. My family does without luxuries that other families expect so that I can stay here at home to care for my family.
Why then do I get treated like I am ignorant and lazy when I go to be recertified for Family Health Plus insurance? Why must the people at the department of social services stereotype those of us who qualify for this insurance. No we cannot afford private insurance, but that doesn’t mean that we spend all of our money on junk food and alcohol. When we bring in proof of our income, we know that you can verify it, so why must we be asked over and over whether that is our only form of income. Why, when I answer that I stay at home with my children, do I get asked what I do all day long? Is it assumed that there is nothing for me to do? Is it assumed that because there may be others who sit and watch TV all day long that all who apply for this type of assistance do also?
Don’t get me wrong, I have encountered social workers who are compassionate and humane. But my most recent encounters have soured me against those who administer this type of insurance forever. If we didn’t need health insurance so much I think I would tell them all what I think of their methods and treatment and let the devil take them all.
Comments (16)
I agree with you 100%. When I was pg with #2 I lost my job and NO ONE is going to hire an 8 month mom with another little one at home. There was a lapse in our insurance so I applied for Mi Child here. Well in order to get the benefit I had to attend a class on how to tend a garden. They didn’t care that we had a HUGE garden every year.
Then they wanted to know what I was doing to better myself. I had to take classes on how to properly care for a baby even though I already had one that was 3 years old.
The humiliation they put you through isn’t worth it.
My friend works hard taking care of her mother. Her mother who is touched profoundly and is generally mean and hatefull. No one else will take care of her so she does. They get food stamps and she gets a check to take care of her mom so the state doesn’t have to. She is treated like trash at the grocery store. They also complain because she combines coupons with her food stamps. This makes what she gets go a lot farther.
The number of people with out a job right now is in the double digits and its only going to get worse. These people realistically are not going to have a job with in the next 6 months bring the number of people on medicade for their children, food stamps, and for here heating assistance to a record high.
The American people have lost compassion for their own.
I agree with you and things are not going to get better.
I agree. This treatment is very unfair. I’m so sorry you must be subject to it.
Social workers, you fit a profile so they treat you a certain way. It is very mindless and inherently very insulting to those with minds.
*Raises hand* I’m the one who takes care of her mother. And we no longer receive food stamps because the hassle is long, and it’s time consuming. Not to mention I had no one to take care of Mom while I went for an hour long “recertification”.
I only get paid 3.75 hours a day, no days off, no vacation, absolutely NO insurance in any way shape or form.
I could drone on for hours about how VALID AND TRUE laziness has screwed the “system” for those of that DON’T lay on our a$$es and merely breed for the pure satisfaction of being lazy.
Those of us that do work, and are NOT lazy and uneducated want a hand UP not a hand out. There is a huge difference!!!
i don’t know the case of your state… or the workers you have talked to. but in my state, they are making HUGE social service cuts. these cuts mean people who currently receive services and aid will no longer receive it by september. i know workers need to double check and make sure people fit the new qualifications before they reissue aid.
@trunthepaige - not all social workers are that way. Some are, because if they don’t ask those questions, when the department does an unannounced audit on their files and cases, and learn a social worker did not ask a question, the social worker is jeopardized for promotions, wages, employment.
Secondly, there is a paradigm for their work, called “EBP” or Evidence Based Practice. In order to serve all clientele, they determine it would be good for people to be trained in something. There may well be other people in your community who are stay at home moms, but drink, or don’t know how to diaper their 3rd and youngest child, and the other two suffered with terrible rashes. You don’t know that, and the social workers don’t know that until there is a report of child neglect. Therefore to protect everyone and keep everyone up to speed, the classes are offered for all. However, the class may bea pre-requiste, then it has to be taken .Now, I know there are gaps and laspses in the system. Even when you work in the system, you cannot beat it.
@Kate_Hutchinson - Right so you must mindlessness follow the directive from on above. And the fact that you work with one person after another all day long makes it that much worse.
I was not trying to say it was the fault of the social worker. It would take a spacial talent to have people pushed through like cattle, all while working under orders you must follow, and not to start treating people like cattle. Or at least look like you are.
Some social workers take pleasure in being mean. I know personally one DSS worker here who found it fun to intimidate people she thought were uneducated and shouldn’t breed. Sad part is she still works at it.
Bear hug. As soon as you’re not too prickly to touch.
I know what you mean. I really annoys me how people always preach about what a huge responsibility kids are, but then look down on stay-at-home moms. Like, WTF? Mothers have the most important job in the world, in my opinion. My husband and I both have college educations and I plan on staying home when I have kids because I would prefer to care for them myself than hand them off to strangers in a daycare (which will cost a lot of money anyway). I’d prefer to see to it that my kids are raised how I want them to be raised and be there to share all their “firsts” and stuff like that.
Praying for you.
When dau had cancer, was a single mom with very little income only that from a few day care kids she couldn’t get help no matter where she turned. Think she did get some food stamps but they weren’t nearly enough to feed 4 teens. Social workers were horrible to her. I know good ones too but they sure aren’t in the small city nearby. If you aren’t generational welfare forget getting short term help or the kind of help you need or if you get it be prepared to have some look down their noses at you.
I know exactly how you feel! I have a BA and a BS degree, but my husband and I agreed to live on his income alone so I could stay home with our daughter. That has been a HUGE challenge, but it’s one that is important to us. But when our rent went up and my college loans came into repayment later on, I was unable to find another job because the market is so pathetic in Michigan, not to mention, we can’t afford daycare for my four month old anyway. I spent hours on the phone and had to talk to a bunch of rude social workers and city workers to get put on the WIC program. The nurse that evaluated me and my daughter was the first nice person I talked to. I think she was so happy to see someone who was NOT lazy, and was breast-feeding and watching my diet and generally doing a good job to give the best care I can provide for my daughter. The fact is that times are tough right now, but I think they see a lot of people abusing the system and therefore make stereotypes.
I agree completely with you regarding the social workers.
I do take exception, though, to your referring to a mother who works as turning her responsibility over to somebody else. Staying home is a valid choice for EITHER parent, but so is having a career. I have no intention of staying home with children, because it is my personal belief, for me, that my pursuing my career and my potential will be in their ultimate best interest. I don’t say everybody should make that choice, and I don’t belittle the choices of others. I won’t be belittled for mine either. As you otherwise pointed out so well in this blog, stereotyping people and putting everybody in the same category is just wrong.
I hope you get the insurance issue sorted out. I think running the family farm is a beautiful occupation, and if the idiot social workers can’t get that, maybe they should learn some things.
Good grief, you are working a family farm and you are raising children and someone actually asked you what you do all day? Isn’t that unbelievable?