My grandma was the strength in my entire family. She clothed us, fed us and made sure we had discipline. She kept us in line, even made us go out in the yard and cut our own switch when we were bad, but boy did she love us. She had the warmest hugs, the brightest smile and she would defend her family to the very end. She was by far the strongest most independent woman I have ever met. She taught all of her grandchildren, rather male or female, that there is no role you need to play in life based on your gender. She always said that "if a girl wants to play football then she should play football, and if a boy wants to dance then he should put on his slippers and give one hell of a show ". We were never bound to the traditional beliefs of men and women and the gender roles. Growing up with these beliefs has allowed me to be comfortable being the breadwinner while my fiance' stays at home and cares for the children. We both work in my opinion because being a full time parent can be just as challenging as working full time outside of the home. We share the responsibilities of budgeting for bills, cooking and cleaning and the guidance and discipline of the children.
As a child I was never what you would call, "well off"," and my family struggled every day to make ends meet and money was never a regular commodity in my house. We lived in a 3 bedroom home which housed 2 of my aunts who had 3 kids between them, as well as my grandmother, mother, brother, 2 sisters and me. I always got my clothes handed down to me from my sisters who got their clothes from a little place called the Christian Outreach. My sisters were very affected by our financial situation growing up. They were highly embarrassed by the fact that our mom received assistance from the government to help pay the bills and food stamps for food. The more fortunate kids at school would make comments regarding our clothes, saying stuff like "tell your mom to get a job and buy you a dress that isn't from the 1800's".