Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

Stephanie Land shares her experiences living below the poverty line, with a young child, cleaning houses. As you might expect, it's a grim life, living paycheck to paycheck, with all the niceties that many of us take for granted.

I'm sure I am going to sound hard-hearted but there were many things about this story that bothered me. I was sad Land didn't focus on the things she did have during her short time in poverty. She received child support. She received free college tuition. She received food stamps. She received rent and child care subsidies. She had a job. She was able to attend college. I was also sad that Land wasn't honest with herself about mistakes she made, impulsive decisions that had heavy consequences. I also was appalled at how she looked through the possessions of people in the homes she was cleaning. It frustrated me that every time she came into a bit of money she quickly spent it on superfluous things. I felt especially annoyed by that sense of entitlement she seemed to have; when did we get to the place in the world that we feel like others are duty-bound to help us? On the other hand, I did like the place in the story where she turned from this sort of thinking, when she cleaned for the family that exuded love, when she realized that that is the most important thing that she and her daughter had, when she began to move toward the realization of her dreams.