I am thankful I am not...

[Lynda Kamrath]

Been thinking about this and had to post somewhere and cannot post on FB because they are all friends there.

I am thankful I am not....

1) 58 years old and unemployed for three years, home repossessed, savings and 401(k) gone, living in my mother's mobile home, and getting advances from my inheritance for expenses

2) 30 years old, master's degree, working part time in a liquor store, living with my parents, and $75,000 in student loans

3) 48 years old, alcoholic, children raised and on their own, living with my mother and retraining on the computer for medical billing

4) 30 years old, father of two, medical unit deployed to Afghanistan, wife and baby living with her parents, daughter living with her grandmother (her mother also deployed)

5) 28 years old, college degree, just returned from the Peace Corps in Eastern Europe, living in a tent in my parents' backyard because house filled with my sister, her husband, and kids

Do you see some similarities here?  Thank goodness for parents or all these people would be homeless.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Pam, I don't believe anyone was trying to be harsh but rather pointing out that your life could go either way through no fault of their own. Also to be thankful for what you have, it could change in the blink of an eye.

[Cindy M, Zachary & the Frenchies]

It sounds like your family have made amazing contributions to our country and I am thankful for their service. It also sounds like they serve as an excellent example of the difficulties of this economy for those who need to retrain, who can't pay their student loans because they are underemployed, and for deployed service members trying to raise families on very slim incomes. Unfortunately not everyone has a family as generous as your mother, who has the space and/ or resources to help them through these difficult times.

I am thankful this year that both my parents are still alive, that I have a job, that my daughter and her family are getting buy- even though they are living pay check to pay check, that my dogs are healthy. I hope next year is brighter for your family and for all the Americans who are struggling.

[Pam and Ginger Snap]

I don't  think she was talking about her family, but her friends on facebook that she is thankful that she is NOT like...

[Lorraine Bromley]

I have my middle boy back with us, my baby in University and living at home at breaks, my oldest on his own but on disability he will never be rid of. I would love to have more money for life but have it all in a home. I could downsize and have money but no room for my kids to stay over or a place to have grandkids someday! I am a surrogate mother to a cousin that is 11 and wants to live with us and likely will be when she can make the decision to escape her mother, another life time. We are in debt but don't have all the toys and stuff others seem to have. We are lucky to have a husband that can support us and me both financially and physically. The most important of all of it is your health. I have had to struggle with mine and it is worse than not having money as you have no way of getting a job no way of getting better, no way of improving. I would rather live in a tent healthy and hope, than be unhealthy. May everyone have the health to carry on and hope to carry you thru!