Poverty strikes single mother
Having six kids is a difficult job for two parents. Having six kids is even more difficult as a single parent.
Finances have been a source of tension in the past year for Jodi Kunsman after her divorce from her husband. When they got married, the two of them decided that she would give up her earning power in order to raise her oldest children. Divorce had never seemed like a possibility when she was married, but her decision to give up working left her with no marketable skills, and no money.
“I gave up that earning power and I will never get it back. It was worth it to see my kids raised well…but I am disadvantaged financially. I have no savings, I scrape by and I can’t work two jobs right now, never seeing the kids that are still home,” Kunsman says.
In order for her to get a better job to make more money, she would need to go back to school. She is currently taking classes, partly so that she doesn’t have to pay back deferred loans from her first bachelor’s degree from years ago.
Four of her six kids are living at home with her, while two are away at college. Recently, she says that she moved her family away from their home for two reasons: to get away from her ex-husband, and to have better job opportunities.
Luckily, her move allowed her to find a job at the Vision Center at Walmart, which is one of the higher paying positions at the store. However, it is only two dollars more than minimum wage, hardly a living wage for her large family.
Kunsman is part of 14.1 percent of female single parent households in Muncie, and also a part of 8.1 percent of female single parent homes with children under 18.
On average, male single parents tend to have higher incomes than females, which gives women a disadvantage. This is magnified in Kunsman’s case because she has had to start from scratch on finding a decent job.
In addition, women on average make 78 cents to every dollar a man makes. In Muncie, the average monthly cost of living for a single parent with two children is about $5,000. With six children, that average is even higher.
Kunsman is only making about $9.25 per hour, which means that she is only bringing in about $2,000 every month. That is based on if she works seven days a week for eight hours every day. That is significantly less than even the average for raising two children.
By this data, Kunsman falls well below the poverty level. She fits the data that says 67.7 percent of female single parents in Muncie are living in poverty. What this means for many single parents are that there is not a steady way to provide food for their families.
Food stamps, or SNAP is a program that allows people with low or no income to buy food. According to the SNAP page on in.gov, food items that can be bought with food stamps are as follows:
Breads and cereals
Fruits and vegetables
Meats, fish and poultry
Dairy products
Seeds and plants that can produce food for consumption
Like many Hoosiers, Kunsman also receives food stamps in order to feed her family. It isn’t her first choice, but right now it’s the only option.
“I don’t like it that we have to use them, but without them we really do struggle to eat well,” she says.
Due to her moving into a new house last month, she was unable to receive her food stamps. This was because of a simple error in which the paperwork was sent to her old address, and she wasn’t able to get them in on time.
“When all the responsibility falls on your shoulder to do every part of sustaining a family, it is overwhelming. Things just fall to the wayside and you can tend to focus on just the urgent daily tasks ahead of you,” Kunsman says.
Financial hardship has also affected her kids. When one of her sons wanted to travel to see his cousin who lives an hour away, she knew that it would be near impossible for her to do.
“I knew I couldn’t afford the gas and time to take him. He got off the phone and said, ‘So, basically we are poor, so I’m stuck and I can’t go!’ I feel so bad that I can’t take him, but I know my limits, I know my bills will suffer if I take him,” she says.
Even for birthdays, she has to cut corners. She will only allow a budget of $10 to $25 for a pizza, ice cream, cake and a present. Christmas isn’t any better, and they usually sign up for programs through the local school. She says her kids have given up having a dream Christmas list because they know it won’t happen.
Though she feels that at any minute she could lose it all, either through sickness or injury, she says her faith in God is the only thing that brings her comfort through it all.
She will still have to use the food stamps for the time being. However, now that she has a stable income, she has been able to set up a plan to pay back her bills.
*This is a story I wrote for a class at Ball State University.
