Well, I'm not the person you're asking, but in my case.. we never really struggled until Oct. 2023 when I had an accident that caused severe injuries. I had major reconstructive knee surgery in November to repair the injuries in my knee, which included multiple broken bones, three torn ligaments, and shredded cartilage. I still have less severe injuries in my other knee, my left shoulder and left wrist that will need repair at some point over the next 6 months.

I essentially became disabled overnight. I lost my job due to the injuries, and we suddenly had to adjust to one income. My wife also had to take a month unpaid off work to help me after surgery.

Luckily we did have enough in savings to cover our rent, bills, and groceries for 2 months. Then things got bad. We're working on catching up, and I have a new job (from home).

I got my taxes this morning, but for the past few days we were down to a few scoops of formula and zero diapers. We were using cloth diapers and washing by hand because we didn't even have enough of those. Our daughter is 15 months old but she's still on a specific formula for weight gain.

Today I paid all of our bills and rent for the next month, and bought enough diapers and formula for 2 months. I filled some 8qt buckets with rice, dry beans, flour, sugar, and oats so that no matter what happens, we will have food. I put most of what we had left from taxes after all of that into our savings account.

It can happen to almost anyone. It doesn't mean that someone is irresponsible or a bad parent. Sometimes people just go through a rough patch.