I have a more complicated life than most people have. I am 16, and I have been dealing with divorced parents ever since I was 6. Now, a lot of kids deal with this, but my parents are complete opposites. My mother is a sweet person who cares about me more than anyone else, but we aren’t financially stable. Since all the parents over at my mom’s house have disabilities/health problems, my mother can’t work to provide. So she relies on government-issued money. We barely get by at the end of the month.

My dad, however, is more financially stable than my mother. He has a house, a family of 6, and food on the table every day. But my dad and I don’t always get along. He has more of an old-fashioned way of parenting, and my mother raises me the opposite of him. Because of this, we always disagree on stuff. When I was 10, it started to change a bit.

I got into trouble for another thing over at my dad’s house, and this time, he put his foot down. I signed up for therapy to deal with whatever problems he thought I had. But he never expected that he was gonna have to join a couple of sessions, also. We go to therapy together, and we have some bonding time, albeit a bit awkward, but we get along. After a couple of sessions, my father is now trying to treat me better, even though he still has those old-fashioned morals, but he is trying his best.

My mother struggles a lot to give me a good childhood and get me somewhere better than where I am right now. She helps me every step of the way, and whenever I have personal money, I treat her to something, whether it’s something sweet or a trip.

After a while, I started to think about my life and realized that I have something that most kids don’t: both perspectives on being poor and on being financially stable. It made me realize that I have it good compared to most people with divorced parents. It made me more aware of other people’s feelings and that they’re struggling in life, same as me. It made me a better person in general, and as a bonus, a nicer relationship with both of my parents. Even though my parents don’t get along, they both agree on one thing: they both love me the same.

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