Less Help and New Roles

As we all know, the economy is at the point where it is affecting more than just the homeless. Schools are especially having to cut back due to all the budget cuts. Many of the extra resources they offered are less available or taken away all together. If a school connected its families with counseling services, for example, that same service is used for other schools in the district. This makes the wait list even more ridiculous. Even worse, some schools are no longer offering such counseling services. They were once an educational institution that could connect families with services, but now, it seems like they are being asked to deal with them on their own. Teachers and Principals are now put in the role of therapist. They find themselves having to look for interventions on their own, without any help. Of course, often times there are more students than they can help. Our schools are now being left in the dark, with no idea where to turn or what to do. They would like to help the families in need, but at this time, there is just nothing they can offer.

Another interesting switch in roles that I would like to comment on deals with a family that I met at a school. I spoke with a mother who now found herself to be the bread winner in the family. For most of her adult life, she was a housewife. Her husband was at a decent job where she could afford the luxury of not working. This became even more of a benefit when they had kids. The mother was there to take them to school, pick them up from school, and make a hot meal for when her husband came home. Recently, however, her husband lost his job. His job also had to make cut backs and they fired many people. The family could not survive with both of them not working, so now the mother found herself having to find a job. She was now returning to a job market, that was already hard to enter because of less jobs available, that she had been absent from for many years. She explained how she felt like the weight of the world was on her now. She also expressed some regret about not having a job before. Now we have a mother who regrets spending time with her children because she should have been working. She now had to find something while her husband tried to get back on his feet. She explained that her husband was very upset about this. He believed that he had failed his family. Also, now the kids are having to go through a new transition. Mom was always there but now she was not. They always asked Dad if they could buy this or that, and now they have to ask Mom. This economy changed things all around for this family.