Prudence is working hard to pay for her teenage daughter’s tuition in another state when she receives a shocking call from her daughter’s school. Her daughter has been skipping classes for an entire week. Prudence suspects something is wrong, and when she goes home, a baby in her daughter’s room confirms her worst fears.
Katie tosses her school bag on the living room couch and storms past her mother to the kitchen. Opening one of the wooden cabinets, she pulls out her low-fat, low-carb crackers and sits at the kitchen counter grumbling, “Seriously, I hate my life,” she mutters as she eats a cracker.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Prudence says, joining her daughter at the counter with a glass of juice. “Here, have this. Did something happen at school?” “Stop it, Mom,” Katie snaps.
“You don’t need to act like you care. Excuse me, I don’t like what you’re doing right now, okay?” she growls. “So just stop.” “Well, young lady, don’t forget you’re talking to your mother, and I do have the right to ask my daughter if something’s bothering her.
Katie is silent for a while, not uttering a single word. Then she realizes she needs someone to talk to, so she spills out everything in front of her mother. “I hate it all, Mom,” she says, softening a little. “I hate why we’re so poor. What we never let you miss out on anything.
We do our best for you, honey. How come you’d say that?” “Okay, selling my classmates are literally the richest people I’ve ever met, Mom. Like their parents gave them their own apartments, and they get to spend their birthdays on yachts. And why am I never invited to those wonderful places and occasions?
Because we’re poor, Mom. We can never match their status.” Prudence could see where the topic was going as Katie continued explaining her wealthy classmates’ lavish lifestyles. She knew her daughter too well. Katie had this sense of entitlement that the whole world revolved around her and that she deserved the best.
Being the only child in the family sometimes did that to you, so it wasn’t entirely Katie’s fault. She never recognized her parents’ sacrifices to give her the best. She was always dissatisfied and grew up ungrateful for what she had. Prudence, 51, had undergone tons of fertility treatments and endured a C-section to bring Katie into this world. But after that, Prudence didn’t have the money to raise her daughter, so she and her husband, Frank, lived at her parents’ house.
Only when Prudence was 43 did she move out with her family. As Prudence listened, now she was worried about how she’d break the news to her 13-year-old daughter about their present financial situation. Frank was working extra shifts, and Prudence had asked her boss to send her to a different state to a bigger factory so she could make more money, and Katie wouldn’t have to miss school or college.
Katie’s parents hadn’t told her that their savings were nearly exhausted, and they were struggling to pay their bills, which included the house mortgage loans and Katie’s tuition. Prudence knew she’d have to tell Katie she was relocating to a different state sooner or later, and there was no better time than now.
So she took a deep breath, sat beside her daughter, and held her hands lovingly as she said, “Well, I guess I can fix some of those problems now. I got a transfer, honey, and I’ll be flying out this week.” “Flying out? What’s going on, Mom?” Prudence forced a smile.
“Well, it’s just that I was offered a higher salary, so I’ll have to relocate. I won’t be there for you all the time from now on. Your dad and I were going to tell you, but we were waiting for the right time.” Katie was upset and furious. “How could her parents not tell her about such a massive change in her life?
How could they keep it from her that her mom would soon move out of their home and away from her?” Once Prudence moved out, Katie hated her life even more. She’d have to prepare her breakfast, do her laundry, and even clean her room because Frank was seldom around to help her. This was not the kind of teenage life Katie had envisioned for herself. She wanted to go out with her rich classmates and have fun.
She wasn’t supposed to make toast in the mornings and do laundry in the evenings. So one day, months after Prudence had moved out, she called her and begged her to return. “Mom, please, please come back. I really miss you.” “Oh, honey,” Prudence said.
“I miss you too, but you know I’m doing this for us, for you. A year, she then added. I can’t be back before that. I can’t define my work contract.” Katie sounded depressed over the phone, and Prudence reassured her that everything would be all right, and she’d see her soon.
Prudence really wanted everything back home to be perfect while she was gone. She trusted Katie that nothing would go wrong. But months after being apart from her daughter, Prudence got a worrying call from Katie’s school. It was a school principal on the phone, and he sounded very concerned when he told Prudence that Katie’s grades were slipping, and she might be expelled. “Is everything well at home, Mrs.
Delaney?” the principal asked further. “You know, sometimes a child’s home environment really impacts them, and I’m perturbed about Katie since she’s been a fantastic student except this term.” “Oh, nothing like that, sir,” Prudence said, embarrassed. “I mean, I’ll talk to Katie.
She’s been fine. Nothing’s wrong at home. Her dad and I have only been supportive in whatever she does.” “Oh, I’m afraid her performance indicates differently, Mrs. Delaney,” the principal remarked.
“We’re letting her off this time, but you know we won’t have a choice if her grades continue to fall.” Prudence hung up the phone and immediately dialed Frank to find out what was going on with her daughter, but he said he had no idea. “I’m barely at home, Prudence. How am I supposed to know? And it’s not like our daughter shares anything with me.
I don’t even know when she’s home. What kind of a father are you, Frank? Our daughter’s doing terribly at school, and you don’t care.” “Hey, relax, okay? I’ll talk to her.
“And no, there’s no need. I’ll call her tonight.” “All men are the same,” Prudence angrily thought as she hung up on her husband. That night, she called Katie, and the young girl was wailing like a baby, begging her to call back. “Katie, what’s going on?
Prudence demanded. “What in
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