I must say that if you have not read part 1 on this story you will be a bit lost.
At that we continue…
When we arrive at the apartment the young women and I enter and began to talk about the different features of the apartment and I began to discuss the application and approval process. She began say that the reason she works where she does is so that she can take care of her two kids during the week. I asked another personal question as to whether she was receiving any child support for either child (as that would factor into the approval process for the apartment). She responded that both of this children had “deadbeat dads” and she was on her own to take care of her children. She then said that because she stripped and only worked the weekends it allowed her act as a stay at home mom and spend tons of time with her two children. This is where I really began to see this young woman in a different light. She was asking all of the same kinds of questions that any other mom would such as school district, safety, and noise at night. She was just another person who is doing her best to take care of her kids. I then realized that she was a mom that happened to be a stripper and not a stripper that had a couple of kids. She was doing her best to give her kids everything they needed and for her dancing for men was how she was managing to do that now. It was at this point where I was able to treat this young woman no different than any other person who walked in my door. It did certainly break my heart that this woman had to dance for a bunch of horney dudes to feed her family and I couldn’t imagine the way that must play on the way she views herself. But she was doing what she had to do. As we left the apartment into the snow storm I had a new respect for my prospective tenant and we entered my car talking about our childhoods and growing up in Toledo. My back window was snow covered but because we were just on property I did not think anything of it and I believed there was no car behind me. I backed out slowly and bumped into the car behind me. As the kids are saying “fail”. The young women concerned asked if what I wanted her to do and I told her to sit tight to check for damage (fortunately a 1MPH crash causes no damage). We made our way up to the office and chatted a bit more as she waited for her ride to come get her. I couldn’t help but want to get her a job doing anything else but I knew that this was the choice she had made and one she was obviously committed to. I told her good luck and have not seen her again.
This whole story has made me really reflect on what we put weight on in our culture. That a woman can make my monthly salary in a weekend for taking off her clothes at a bachelor party. That she was forced to make this choice as it was either feed her children or let them go hungry. And finally I realized that I will never have a snap judgment of a woman like this again as there are so many things that I am not aware of and have no right to ever look down on someone for the way they provide for their family. I do hope this woman can find some other way to do but it is not my place to worry or suggest. I am here to just be a smile and offer answers about the apartment community…
The whole experience brought an old song to mind.
Check it out, I think you know where I am going with this.
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