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Friday, March 12, 2010

Bad credit is hereditary

On the radio the other day, the OPP caller was wondering if she was a bad parent for borrowing $100 from her son to pay for bills. It ended up being another OPP where the topic quickly turned away from the original person and focused on one of the callers. This person called in to say that in order to make ends meet, she has put many of her bills in her children's names. Since the phone and electric companies do not check the age of their costumers, she can do that. Then when she can't pay the bills, they don't go after her. It extends the amount of time she has electricity for another 3 months or so.

She actually said, "I have bad credit and chances are my children will too, so it makes no difference if it starts now."

I'm appalled by the idea that these kids will grow up and already be behind before they can even start. I think it's unbelievably selfish of the mother to do and the idea to use my children's identities like that would never ever occur to me as an option.

Then again, I've been lucky enough to have never found myself quite that desperate. It makes me wonder how low I would go if it was absolutely necessary.

1 comment:

Salina said...

That's appalling! Growing up poor makes me appreciate what my parents did (or didn't do in this case). My dad always believed it was his job to make our lives easier so that we wouldn't have to struggle like he has. Even if that meant we had water or electricity turned off for a bit. There are other ways to handle this and I'm thankful I'm the type of mother to protect my children's futures.