Blog Post #8

Urban poverty brings a lack of basic needs. These mothers not only have the stress of raising children and a family, but also the stress of survival. Even the women who are single and without children have a rough time living in poverty, and constantly wondering if they are going to make ends meet. Those with children have to worry about providing basic life necessities to their children as well as themselves, but they also have to consider how every decision they make will affect their child. To add to their stress, they have to work one or more dead end jobs for minimum wage which generally bring no benefits. Because they cannot work their way up the ladder in their jobs they feel as though they will never get out of poverty. When they do not have benefits from their jobs, they are likely to lack proper health care. These people living in poverty have to make the decision to pay for health care or pay for their rent. Many will choose the rent because they are unsure if they will utilize the amount of money the put into health care, but they will definitely need a roof over their heads. This leaves their children, and themselves without any form of health care which can be problematic in young children. Also, those without benefits generally do not receive any form of paid time off, or even unpaid time off so any little emergency could lose them their job, and sole income. These people could literally lose everything if they or their children become even minorly ill. When these impoverished women have children, they still need to work in order to make enough money to provide for their children so they need to find child care. Many time the good care is unavailable during the hours needed or all together, and/or it is way too expensive for these women. And because of this, many of the mothers have to sacrifice what they would like their children to have in order to make sure that their child at least has someone there, and that they can continue working. Many times the child care that costs less in not developmentally focused, and they have to many children under their care in order for a child to get any kind of special attention. This can cause development affects on the child. On top of that, the mother is working more and the child is away from their mother more which is another thing that can create developmental challenges for young children. This makes is more possible for the poverty circle to be repeated. However, one of the greatest problems that I have noticed in my studies throughout this course is that the government is helpful to those who make little to no money. But once a person gets a job and starts to make more money they cut off their assistance which throws them right back to where there started; living with barely enough to survive.
Those is mixed income neighborhoods tend to have great opportunity and better jobs. The fact that they are in a better neighborhood alone, helps them to find a better job. With a better it is more likely they will not work as much and they may have an opportunity for advancement. It seems that they better neighborhoods may bring better care options as well which is better for their children. These neighborhoods are also safer for the child to be in and go outside in, and they tend to have a slightly better education system so it is a good way to decrease the chances that the cycle will repeat itself.