My Financial Stability in Financially Unstable Southeastern Kentucky

One of my new goals in all this self searching I have been doing is to move toward financial independence.  I currently depend upon my husband to provide all of our family's financial needs while I remain at home house-wiving, homeschooling, doing all I can do alone on our homestead, and working on side projects.  It is hard for me at times to have to think about the fact that I am spending another person's hard earned money when I want to buy a gift for my girls, or something I don't particularly need, but want.  We also have to make a lot of personal sacrifices in order to make sure bills are paid and we are all fed well and kept healthy.  For example, I currently have two pairs of pants that fit me the way they should and don't completely fall from my body if I take my belt off.  I'm rarely out of the house, so I make do.

In looking at my options for work alongside my hopes and dreams, then factoring in what I'm actually capable of doing with little to no childcare, I can't help but think of how things have changed since my childhood.  My parents had readily available free childcare from my grandparents, great grandparents, and aunts and uncles.  We really were raised in a village it seems and if I am honest, I don't know what would have came of us if we hadn't been.  I have very little time that is not consumed by raising my children.  I'm their primary caregiver, as it should be, but there is little time to be with friends, adult conversations with a real person, or to hold a job outside of the home because my daughters' grandparents aren't able to provide daily childcare (as most of them are still working full time jobs passed retirement age) and we cannot afford a paid sitter.

Another thing I noticed as a child was how completely absorbed the adults around me were in financial concerns.  Did we have enough money?  While I'm concerned with our family's finances and I have a clear picture of what I'd like for us in terms of lifestyle and how effectively our money is spent, I let go of most of the worry around the amount we have available.  Yet, recently, I began to see the need for me to have earnings of my own more than I ever have.  While it should not be the case that money brings power to a voice, I have come to realize that it does, even within many family structures.  Traditional roles of womanhood and motherhood are truly outdated if we desire to be seen as peers with our male counterparts. Tradition is not always a good thing as many are informed by outdated ways of thinking and viewing the world.  I feel a movement away from these traditions and to a more balanced way of being is in order. 

Southeastern Kentucky, where I reside, is once again in the midst of an outward migration of people.  I see quite a bit on Facebook that friends and family are planning moves outside of the region to Tennessee and Ohio most often.  Our family's choice to remain in the mountains is a big one.  It is in many ways a sacrifice of opportunities for ourselves and our children.  However, as we currently see things, there is much to be gained by staying and trying to create our own way of life in the region.  This will always be home to us who were born and raised here.  It is as integral to who we are as our heart or mind.  The truth is, those who stay here will have to depend on themselves and their community to develop a sustainable life post coal in the mountains.

I don't know if my current plan will result in financial independence for me, but I will have a little pocket change I hope.  My plan is to make myself available as an editor to anyone requiring those services.  I'm working with one client in California at the moment.  I'm teaching yoga one evening a week, and I am offering my services as a writer/blogger to interested parties.  It blends my passions with what I am capable of doing while still very much within a traditional role in my family as a full time mother.  My success will depend a lot on my ability to market myself within the region, but also outside of it.

My dilemma is not unlike the one that residents of southeastern Kentucky are facing now and for the future.  As more coal jobs are lost and our populations decline, we are searching for ways to make life here a possibility.  The most common suggestions I've seen touted are tourism, farming, and manufacturing.  A recent article from The Daily Yonder written by Tim Marema reported that populations of rural counties in all states who relied on these economic replacements have all lost population since the Great Recession.  The only counties seeing growth were recreation counties and those only grew by 1.4%.  For counties like the one I live in and those directly around us, any of these replacements would be difficult because of a lack of infrastructure and our location away from most major interstates.  

As I have diversified my possibilities of earning for myself and my daughters without a typical hired position, I believe the region will only survive from a diversified approach that utilizes the internet and technology to reach populations outside of the region.  We will have to put our unique stamp on what we do to attract people in and make a visit worth the effort to get here.  We will also have to accept that our lifestyles may look very different from the ones we see away from here because it has to and living here is a choice.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew with my hopes of financial independence while still choosing full time mothering and homeschooling.  I have no way of knowing without trying.  Trying is the only thing to do.  I want to show my daughters a world of possibilities in a reality of limited options.  I can't help but see that it parallels the consciousness we are striving to get to in our region.  Moving past the realization that what is currently taking place is unacceptable and in spite of our realities there is a world of possibilities.  We have to do the work and imagine them.  We have to really try.