So you worked your way through college on $10 an hour. Did you pay childcare and other expenses for ten kids on that?
Roughly. My pay ranged from $8 through $12 an hour, depending what I could arrange with agencies and per-diem work. I did have a full merit scholarship at Brown, which helped, and I had some student loans, which I finished paying off last year.
Did you pay childcare and other expenses for ten kids on that?
Nix on the childcare; Laitaille's oldest is 15, which is plenty old enough for baby-sitting duties. If she works on staff, and even for some agencies, she can get medical coverage in that way. Clothes she can get from the goodwill, just like I did when I was a kid.
So the single biggest expense for the kids is food. I'll bet you $1,000 that their typical meal isn't (1) oatmeal, (2) brown beans, or (3) rice-based. That's what I grew up eating, and you'd be surprised how cheaply you can get beans for eleven people.
But were you really trying to say that it's impossible for the woman to survive at all?