We both worked hard to meet the demands and expectations of what that “dream” should look like-home ownership, two jobs, two cars, lots of physical possessions, and a lavish amount of available credit to make it all come true. That strong-willed sense of resolve to avoid “poverty” was alive and well when I met the man of my dreams, fell in love, and got married at the age of 21.įor the first several years of our marriage, my husband and I successfully accumulated the stuff that makes up the American dream. I made up my mind that when I grew up, I would do anything I had to do to rise above such intense struggle to survive, even if that meant living above my means and financing everything I owned. Seeing Mom and Dad constantly worry about making ends meet no matter how hard Dad tried to provide for us lit a fire of dogged determination inside of me. On payday, his wages seemed so meager and unequal to the amount of himself he poured into earning them. One of the images engraved most indelibly in my mind is Dad walking toward our car, his clothes soaked with sweat from an honest-to-goodness hard day’s work. We had only one vehicle, so Mom and I usually drove Dad to and from work. Mom was a dedicated stay-at-home wife and mother. He only achieved an 8th-grade education, and because of that, he had to be one of the hardest workers I have ever known. Dad’s upbringing was in a home with an even lower income. I was raised in a household with an income that fell below the poverty line. Whatever your political beliefs, there’s no getting away from the fact that this brilliant Dispatches is an indictment of Britain in 2019.Note: This is a guest post from Cheryl Smith of Biblical Minimalism. The children were honest - as children are - about their daily lives, their unemotional matter-of-fact delivery making their stories all the more devastating. “Growing Up Poor: Britain’s Breadline Kids was the most articulate film about poverty I’ve ever seen, because it was told through the eyes of some of the 4 million children growing up poor in Britain today. But other than a short-lived burst of sympathy, what do programmes like this really achieve? It is politicians who need to act on child poverty, not kind-hearted viewers.” “This heartbreaking edition of Dispatches from Bafta-winning director Jezza Neumann – returning to similar territory as his 2014 film of the same name – let the children speak for themselves about what their lives are like. But at this time of year, as we prepare to splash the cash on trinkets and turkey and tinsel, it was a much-needed bucket of cold water to the face.” “Was this a wallow in misery? Yes, a bit, despite the maturity, intelligence and warmth of the children involved. This was a programme designed to give a voice to those suffering their real-life effects, and to bear unsentimentalised witness to them.” The stories differ in detail, but the pattern is the same: it takes just one ordinary catastrophe – domestic violence, divorce, bereavement, a breakdown – to precipitate poverty. “You would call Growing Up Poor: Britain’s Breadline Kids Dickensian if the word didn’t carry connotations of picaresque charm and a notion that things would come right in the end. Growing Up Poor: Britain’s Breadline Kids, Channel 4
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