House sharing
Aug 27th, 2008 by terry
Vintage House
Living alone means that most of the time you don’t have to put up with annoying people inside your home. It also means that you are responsible for every morsel of food that enters your house and your body and that you are responsible for all bills, utilities, maintaining the inside and the outside of the house and the car, the Christmas cards, programming the damned remote, figuring out the microwave, the internet connection, the list is seemingly endless.
If you are a single parent, your list is exponentially more complicated to keep children fed, clothed, nurtured, educated, supervised, and entertained.
With the right people, in the right space, living in an inter-generational household has the potential for an easier and more fulfilling lifestyle. A healthy family is the fundamental unit of good and living in a harmonious well-managed household provides an incalculable advantage economically and psychologically. Disclaimer: With the wrong people in the wrong space, Dante’s Inferno would be a happier address.
Dear Terry,
I am a fulltime single mother of one awesome 15 yr old. Your thoughts, ideas and compassion for single parents have moved me greatly this evening. Thank you.
My story is the unfortunate common….professional mother going to school for the past ten years while working fulltime and raising an intelligent daughter alone. My passion and calling is to work with children in the deaf community. I had to put this aside commencing 2006 while the Unemployment office rejected my final year of college while unemployed after approving me verbally for the California Training Benefits Program. On paper, successful sales, managing, etc and after being laid off in 2005 I simply could not get back into pharmaceutical sales even with ten years of success in the industry and top success without a completed 4 year degree. I was one year from finally completing my BA in Psychology with sign language courses completed and half way through my semester at CSUS they rejected their proposed plan and pulled our only income…did I mention my little hyundai engine blew and I was on my bike to Sac State trying to even complete that last semester. The plan was to work in my current industry as an insurance agent to afford enough to complete school. Here we are 3 years later and since Jan. 2009 I have received over $4,000 in chargebacks due to my clients being small business employees/owners. I cannot afford health insurance for my self but feel grateful to be healthy and continue to stay so. My heart has been hurting lately, as I simply cannot ignore this calling and passion. My first thought while meditating was to somehow find or create a possitive, compatible housing situation that allows my $1,035 a month rent to be shared providing the possible miracle of returning to college this Fall 2009. I have been online for a few hours and found your article and it touched me and moved me.
Where would I begin this journey? Are there shared housing community’s already in Sacramento with healthy single parents working or attending college? I hope this e-mail reaches you, as I am not quite sure this is the proper medium. I just know I am on journey to make dramatic changes to fullfill a calling. Thank you for your compassion for single parents. I was moved.
Sincerely,
Lori
Hi Lori,
Thanks for sharing your story.
My very hard of hearing neighbor was so ill as a child in Mississippi, that he didn’t go to school until he was about 8 years old. He is in his 50’s now and saddled with a learning disability. Hearing loss is a terribly isolating disability. People are DESPERATE for what you already know. Don’t let the obstacles stand in your way. The trick is finding them. I’m sure that with this cooperative community concept, all sorts of people and their passions and needs will come to light. With your talent and drive, rest assured that it will be put to good use. So, you can help people from where you are RIGHT now and the degree will come when it comes!
As far as your living situation goes, there is hope there too. Check out Fairness, the Illusion.