mg,

At a minimum you are being incredibly naive, and you have no basis whatsoever to make the assumptions you have about guest member's family or mother and the reasons they were so poor from the information provided in the post. There is nothing wrong with home ec and nutrition education, but that would have done nothing to have lifted this family out of their poverty.

You have absolutely no information about the history or the situation of the family-yet you assume it is intirely Mom's fault, i.e.If people are poor it is because they make bad choices--maybe out of ignorance-but bad choices must be the reason.

How do you know Mom 'got' herself in this situation. for all any of us know she was widowed at an early age, or beat by a drunk husband until she had to leave with the kids, or had to quit college or drop out of high school to help take care of a sick or dying parent, or to help support her own mothers family. You ignore the information that she works. And you must think she is absolutely bouncing with energy when she gets home to sew all those gently used clothes and she has scads of time to buy in bulk and prepare food from scratch, etc., etc. etc.

Guest,member, I have no idea whatsoever what your family circumstances were that you had to live in such soul numbing poverty-all of you, your Mom especially. But I hate that it was like that.

I, too, hope your mother is truly at peace now. Blessings on her and on you.

Janie