He be on the news rather than the spoiled bRat that hogs the bandwidth.

It's Trump, 24/7 - and I think it's taking its toll on all of us. This story needs to go national... *sigh*

I ran across this in my travels and I thought it was worth sharing...

That 13 year old is amazing. It's all too easy to forget that kids can be wonderful.

I'm going to tell this story, even at the risk of seeming to blow my own horn.

In 1962 my mother moved us five kids (oldest brother was in the army at this point) from northern NYS to Tucson, AZ to escape our father who was an alcoholic who was becoming more and more abusive.

Mom was a nurse, so she knew she could get work anywhere. Back then nurses didn't make very much money. So she worked every extra shift she could get. We kids, who had already become independent, self-sufficient, and able to take care of ourselves, were okay. I can recall not seeing mom for weeks on end. But we could fix our own meals, get ourselves off to school, do our homework. We were okay.

About a year after we moved to Tucson I got a Saturday babysitting job. I watched after two little girls, about the ages of 7 and 9, for nine or so hours while their parents, both school teachers, worked at some sort of Saturday job. Mom drove me to the home in the morning, and the other mom drove me home in the late afternoon. It paid $3.00 for the day. Before you react in horror, remember that this was 1963. An inflation calculator makes that three dollars worth nearly twenty-five dollars today. Not too bad. But here's my essential point. Most days, as the other mom was driving me home, I requested we stop at the grocery store so I could buy food for the family. She was astonished that I would do so. But I could not imagine spending the money on myself when we needed the groceries so desperately.

And even more to the point, I never felt like I was sacrificing anything. Feeding myself and my brothers and sisters mattered much more. A year or so earlier we kids had come into possession of some silver dollars, and we'd bring one or two of them to a nearby family run grocery sort of store. We'd give them one or two of the dollars in exchange for groceries, and then within a few days buy back the silver dollars. Sort of a pawn shop kind of deal.

Here's my essential point. When you are at the bottom, but have a resource or two (silver dollars, baby sitting money, X box) you will use it to your best advantage. This is NOT to insinuate that this kid isn't a hero for what he did. He absolutely is. I just want to say that these kinds of things happen more often than you might know but are uncelebrated.

I think I have something in my eye right now... And I know about inflation - that was a lot of money back then! When we were little, babysitters charged 50-cents an hour. And I made $1.80 an hour at my first summer job back in the '70s - then it went up to $2.30!

Thanks so much for passing on your story. It's going to stick with me for quite awhile...

One is to remember how prices and paychecks have changed. The other, the more important one for me, is the taking care of my brothers and sisters.

I honestly could not think of spending my money on anything other than buying groceries. And as you might imagine from this story, we had almost no excess.

Here's a heartwarming story from that time. I loved to cook, and I loved to make things for my siblings. In my mother's old cookbook from the 1930s, I found a recipe for doughnuts. I used to get up very early in the morning, make the doughnut batter, and deep fry them for breakfast. I can barely recall doing that, but my younger sister has very fond memories of my doing that, and has told me recently.

Mom was so occupied with working, and especially working double shifts whenever she could get them, that (as I mentioned above) we could go for weeks without seeing her. But we always knew that her absence was of necessity, and never resented it. I think the most important thing was that we learned self-sufficiency from a very early age. Because of financial necessity, even before the move to Tucson, Mom was working full time, a 4-12pm shift at a nearby hospital. While Dad was a physical presence in the household in the evenings, he didn't do much other than drink. We kids learned from an early age to take care of ourselves and to fix dinner. It was pure survival, and that wasn't so bad.

I don't want you, or anyone else who reads these posts to feel sorry for me. Yeah, times were tough but we managed. It made us resilient. And to me that's a good thing. While I wouldn't wish so difficult a childhood on anyone, looking back it wasn't so bad, and as I've said, it made me and my siblings strong.

That a 13 year old kid has to slave and toil and give up things any other kid his age gets to enjoy just so his mother can have basic transportation? This is the ugliness of capitalism and income inequality in my opinion. No living wage job for the mother? No safety net in a time of hardship?

I don’t know. This isn’t the 1930’s, kids shouldn’t have to do things like this.

On the other hand, I smell a gofundme coming to at least get him the Xbox back.

my preteen gave me money for food. She had jobs in the neighborhood and we used that for food.

I don't feel bad about that. We help each other. I think this taught her valuable lessons. I'm proud of the fact that we did it ourselves.

We are lucky and not poor anymore. When it comes to her going to college - I've got it.

I honestly don't have a single regret that she helped. Those were terrible times, but we did it.

Best lesson in the world for her.

Elevated the status of his whole family, for something he'll replace when he feels like it. An Xbox for a Shitbox is a good trade. I hope some money comes their way to get it road legal.

I bet walking to the grocery store in Fernley NV bites it!!!!