I have seen so many anons come on here to bash certain groups of women. The sad part is I think they realize (or at least I hope they do) that the blanket generalizations are ridiculous since such a large site has women from many different places and backgrounds.
So let me tell you a bit about me and why the anons will love to hate on me :)
I grew up in a poor family. Dad left mom for another woman when I was about 6 years old, leaving her with no job, no vehicle, a pile of bills and 2 kids in a single wide trailer in the middle of the country. I was thankful I had my grandparents (who allowed us to live in the trailer that my grandpa bought) since they made sure that we always had food, clothes and a warm place to stay. This even while my mom worked nights at a nursing home so that she could provide for my sister and I. I remember that our favorite days were the first of the month. That meant it was time for food stamps and we would come home to find the cabinets filled with food. Mom would even buy extras so that she could put them aside in large blue bins which were stored in our closet just in case of an emergency.
I grew up knowing the worth of money. I remember waking up cold at night because we ran out of propane, I remember watching my step dad walk out of the house with a baseball bat and chase off people who were going to repossess our car. He later stepped up and started night classes to get his degree and a better job.
For me, growing up was hard. I knew what the stress of being poor and working hard to get no where did to my parents. My father was not a big part of my life. I am honestly happy for that. I worked hard throughout my school career since I knew I didn't want to be where my parents were. I graduated high school as a national honor society student and one of the top 10% of female graduates in my state. I knew we didn't have money so I joined the military. There I met my now ex husband who I married a month before graduating high school. My naive teenage self thought that to get anywhere I had to be married (that was the basic consensus in the culture I grew up in).
After a few years of marriage that was hell due to emotional and psychological abuse, I cheated on him and then filed for divorce. The affair gave me a reason and the courage to finally leave. I am glad I did since he started getting physical with me after that.
The rest of my life has been spent with my DH who just beat cancer in November, my DD and our dog. We are not currently working but instead are going to school with our sights set on med school. Yes we are on PA but not for much longer. I have a disability compensation rating through the VA, we both get paid through our GI bills for school and DH will be getting his VA disability compensation soon (and when he does we will not be using PA anymore). I was on the President' Honor Roll last semester and am a model student. Things are far from perfect here but we are happy since we are making progress from where we both started.
Some other specs: I am pro-choice, I breastfed for 3 months then formula fed, I am Pagan and I am a liberal. So much for the stereotypes that could have controlled my life early on.
So go ahead and bash away, ask me anything or do whatever.