Darkness

Cold, cold my feet,
A chill runs down my body.
I see misty fog around me,
A path unclear still.

Flap my wings, I
paddle my feet
As hard as can I.
Head feels heavy now,
I see no light ahead of me.

Darkness has its days,
There is so much to do
In the rainy haze.
Hope keeps me afloat,
Lest I spiral out of control.

Vacuum fills the air,
Voice is lost.
Words are all that care,
Words that shine like tiny diamonds
On my charcoal slate.

Words stay with me, through
my darkness and shine.
A humble blanket of warmth for me,
My words will shine.

Minimum wage

I recently met someone who earns minimum wage for 20 hours a week. She is a single mum for four teenagers.
I just got talking to her and realised how poor life choices can become a vicious circle and keep you poor for a long time. She met a guy in her late teens and had her first child in her early twenties. Now nothing really wrong with that except for the fact that he was already married to another woman and had two kids with her. He told this woman that he can't divorce his wife because their assets are joined and divorce would mean dividing everything and also paying her an alimony.
At this point of the conversation I was wondering, did she not see this as a red flag?
Going forward, he did divorce his first wife and he never married this woman but had four children with her. They eventually separated and now he cannot be found. Since he is missing, the court cannot make him pay for child support. So with that decision, the woman ends up with raising a big brood on minimum wage. She doesn't own a house and the only way she can afford to run her house is through government support for children.
Now she mentioned to me that government provides working tax credit to women who are single mothers and working for atleast 16 hours.
She said if she works full time then the government won't give her the tax credit and she won't be able to run the household. In my mind, I was thinking why can't she look for a full time job where she can get more money and that doesn't require her to ask for working tax credit.
Further into the conversation, we were discussing how we are going to sort out our dinner tonight since we were quite late and she mentioned that she is going to order takeaway again (she did the same previous night) because a pizza place near her house has Tuesday offers on large pizzas. Now for a family of five, she will end up spending atleast £10. I frequently buy groceries and I have realised that if you budget well, you can buy a week's worth of groceries for £20 for a family of four so for her maybe it would cost £25.
This is a poor life choice where you aren't planning your meals in advance and precooking them.
She also mentioned that she is looking to buy a new couch for her living room that would easily cost her £900 and along with this she is also buying another car which is bigger than her current car. Now her daughter has grown up and will move out soon, why does she need a bigger car? She currently doesn't have running hot water and heating in the house and her landlord refuses to fix it. Her contract ends next year, shouldn't she not buy a couch now and focus more on spending on the heating as the winter months are approaching soon. She currently uses halogen heating. Her children complain that their friends go on holidays but they don't, she told them we can't go since those kids have both the parents working and spending money whereas she is the only provider for four.
Based on her short story that I know so far, here is a summary on poor life choices she made:
● Having a relationship with a much married man
● Not being alert on the first red flag that he doesn't want to divorce his first wife
● Having four children with him without thinking of the financial implications these will have on meagre earnings
● Not planning meals in advance and ends up ordering expensive takeaways
● Buying a bigger car when she is running on a shoe string budget
● Buying a new expensive sofa when she is running on a shoe string budget
● Not focusing on the basic necessities like heating
● She also didn't focus on receiving higher education and trained to do a job that provides minimum wage for a long time before increasing the wages.
Conclusion:
She has pulled the trigger on the start of a vicious circle where she cannot fully provide for the children. And so the children may not focus on studies and look at minimum wage jobs like their mum or end up with massive student loans. The children, unless they realise, might end up making equally poor life choices in relationships and in general and the cycle may continue.