Raise the Hammer

I'm sure I'm not going to make any new friends with this comment, but having moved to Hamilton a few weeks ago I must say I am stunned at the number of children being raised by poor-to-extremely-poor parents, and it boggles my mind that these people just continue to have babies they can't afford. Your daughter-in-law's situation seems to me a good example of why, if life is so difficult and complicated already, and this or that work option is not available, one might hold off on adding babies to the mix. If they can't afford a babysitter, or a taxi, why did they think they could afford a baby? I just don't get it, when in this day and age birth control is so easily available, more young women here in Hamilton don't slow down and get their life in order, including their financial / professional life. Obviously that won't help your daughter-in-law now, she's already had the child, I'm just struggling with hearing about all of these "impossible" situations that it seems could easily have been avoided. Am I missing something? Do people here not get educated about birth control and the cost of raising children? The other day on Kijiji I saw an ad from a woman who claimed to be a surrogate about to deliver triplets for a woman who couldn't afford baby clothes, and was looking for donations (of baby clothes)... what? If you can't afford baby clothes, you can't afford a baby! If you are poor and want children, that's ok, but maybe work on becoming educated and comfortably employed first, because once the kids come, pulling yourself out of poverty becomes ten times more difficult! I'm not anti-baby, nor am I remotely suggesting that your daughter-in-law deserved to be mugged or doesn't deserve decent bus service and/or reasonably safe transport to/from work, again just struggling to understand what's going on here in a more general sense.