I love my friends, but...

I have a really good friend. But like every relationship, one has to step back and assess whether this friend is truly worth the effort. This friend is often pushing that envelope with me. She decides she wants to go out, and then will be so broke from buying a dress, she cannot afford breakfast. And since I am out with her, guess who then feels bad and foots the bill? Yep. Every time. I am getting to a point that I don't invite her out often, because this always happens. I get that she has financial difficulties. I do. Been there, done there, bought the t-shirt. But it's the extreme lack of good judgement on her part that kills me every time.

Example: She'll have $100 dollars to her name until the end of the week. We go to the mall for lunch (not the best idea on her part, but I can over-look this), and she decides she HAS to buy $50-$75 dollars on makeup at the counter of Dillards. Why? Because her face keeps breaking out. So she feels that instead of cleaning her face, and taking care of it, she needs expensive shit to cover it up. Not to mention that she needs groceries, and her son's birthday is that weekend.

My friend is 31 years old for fuck's sake. I get that she has financial troubles now that she is divorced. But the fact that a free recliner in good condition (when she only has a beanbag to her name) is not good enough for her, because it's "such a guy's chair" is flabbergasting and mind-blowing. Take what you can get from friends for free, and as you can afford it, THEN you can be as picky as you damn well please!

Kinda Sorta

You know, there are moments in your life, when you have to take a step back and admit to yourself that despite all your best efforts, you are indeed a white trash family. It's not always through deeds you yourself have done. For example: my inlaws. Get comfy, you're gonna LOVE this. My husband is the eldest of 8-9 kids. Somehow my MIL and FIL got into becoming foster parents, and a large number of these siblings are adopted. Thus begins the fun decent into white trashdom. As a result of this, my 35 year old husband has an 8 year old brother. My 11 year old has an 8 year old uncle, who attends the same 2nd grade class of my youngest daughter.

But wait, it gets better. Another one of these siblings barely managed to graduate high school, getting her diploma mainly on the status that the shitty-ass teachers at her non-accredited charter school didn't want to put up with her bitch self another year more than absolutely neccessary. This same sibling also sent out a mass text last year announcing her pregnancy to all on her contacts list. At the time she wasn't 100% sure who the daddy was.

Then there's the alcoholic uncle, who is so money-grubbing he was tallying up his own father's worth at his own father's funeral.

And another uncle who allowed his own children's diapers to be duct taped onto his kids.

The story gets funnier and worse, the deeper you go into this story. The point I am trying to make, is that you can be extremely well educated, live in a nice home, have 3 wonderful kids that you teach to behave well, and no matter what you do, you will never change the fact that you are indeed a white trash family. Deal with it. You can't affect the actions of others, but you can affect your own. Don't perpetuate the crazy.