Hmmm - Good choice or poor choices? Seems a bit subjective to me.

The oil furnace is a good example.

As a kid, my family was up and down financially. During an up time (with the help of a GI bill and a job at the mill), my parents bought a very humble house and struggled to make the mortgage payments for the rest of their lives.

Since both parents worked, I had to come home from school at 11 years old and start the furnace. I had to remove the grate from the floor, stand over it and drop a match down the hole. Everyday I thought I was going to explode. Did my parents make a good choice or a bad choice when they gave me this job?

Another time I had to go into the crawl space under the house because my mom and dad couldn't fit. I had to replace something on the furnace (could it have been the pilot light?) and I had to scoot in on my back with a flashlight, a screwdriver and the part. My dad gave me instructions on his hands and knees talking into the crawl space and I got the job done in spite of the cobwebs and my fear. Good choice or bad choice on my parents part?

Then there was the job of helping my dad shingle the roof...

What I'm trying to say is that what may appear to be a poor choice is actually the only choice for some. Sometimes when you're struggling, you don't have a choice, you just have to do it and you do it with whatever resources you have. You just blink back the tears.

I've worked in schools where the poverty rate was very, very high. If you want to survive, you check your psychology at the door because everyone knows that psychology was made for rich folks. It doesn't apply to the poor. Hats off to those who struggle and make it in spite of all the odds and hats off to those who have the compassion to help the others.