What’s up with this complete fallacy people seem to believe in which there exists all of this “choice” in our lives, when in reality the only choice many people have — the author included — is to do their best to live under nearly impossible financial circumstances? Finding a better opportunity? That’s extremely difficult to do with or without a job, and if most of your time is spent caring for others, there’s hardly room to care for yourself let alone seek something so abstract as fucking opportunity. Opportunity is a privilege, and it’s not simply obtained by a change in attitude.

Suffering under conditions like this isn’t a matter of choice. If you accept that, you can believe she and her child deserve to live nurturing lives and care for the ones they love. Placing responsibility on sole individuals ignores the circumstances that lead to not only their situation, but those of employers and their policies. So let’s get over this you’re-a-person-you-made-choices bullshit and turn our focus to the people who make choices literally every day: employers. They have the choice to change their attitude towards their employees and provide a real living wage. Task those with power to solve problems, not the people attempting to live within their broken system.