Prudence is working hard for her teenage daughter’s tuition in another state when she receives a shocking call from her school—her daughter has been skipping classes for an entire week. Prudence suspects something is wrong, and when she goes home, a baby in her teenage daughter’s room confirms her worst fears
Katie tossed her school bag on the living room couch and stormed past her mother to the kitchen. Opening one of the wooden cabinets, she pulled out her low-fat, low-carb crackers and sat at the kitchen counter, grumbling.
“Seriously, I hate my life!” she muttered as she ate a cracker.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Prudence asked, joining her daughter at the counter with a glass of juice. “Here, have this. Did something happen at school?”
“Stop it, Mom!” Katie snapped. “You don’t need to act like you care!”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t like what you’re doing right now, OK?” she growled. “So just…stop!”
“Well, young lady, don’t forget you’re talking to your mother. And I do have the right to ask my daughter if something’s bothering her.”
Katie was silent for a while, not uttering a single word. Then she realized she needed someone to talk to, so she spilled out everything in front of her mother. “I hate it all, Mom!” she said, softening a little. “I hate why we’re so…poor.”
“What? We never let you miss out on anything! We do our best for you, honey. How come you’d say that?”
Katie sighed. “My classmates are literally the richest people I’ve ever met, Mom! Like, their parents gave them their own apartments, and they get to spend their birthdays on yachts, and why am I never invited to those wonderful places and occasions? Because we’re poor, Mom! We can never match their status!”
Prudence could see where the topic was going as Katie continued explaining her wealthy classmates’ lavish lifestyles. She knew her daughter too well. Katie had this sense of entitlement that the whole world revolved around her and that she deserved the best.
Being the only child in the family sometimes did that to you, so it wasn’t entirely Katie’s fault. She never recognized her parents’ sacrifices to give her the best. She was always dissatisfied and grew up ungrateful for what she had
Prudence, 51, had undergone tons of fertility treatments and endured a C-section to bring Katie into this world. But after that, Prudence didn’t have the money to raise her daughter, so she and her husband, Frank, lived at her parents’ house. Only when Prudence was 43, she moved out with her family.
As Prudence listened now, she was worried about how she’d break the news to her 13-year-old daughter about their present financial situation. Frank was working extra shifts, and Prudence had asked her boss to send her to a different state to a bigger factory so she could make more money and Katie wouldn’t have to miss school or college.
Spending love on children is more important than spending money on them.
Katie’s parents hadn’t told her that their savings were nearly exhausted and they were struggling to pay their bills, which included the house mortgage, loans, and Katie’s tuition. Prudence knew she’d have to tell Katie she was relocating to a different state sooner or later, and there was no better time than now.
So she took a deep breath, sat beside her daughter, and held her hands lovingly as she said, “Well, I guess I can fix some of those problems now. I—I got a transfer, honey, and I’ll be flying out this week.”
“Flying out? What’s going on, Mom?”
Prudence forced a smile. “Well, it’s just that I was offered a higher salary, so I’ll have to relocate. I won’t be there for you all the time from now on. Your dad and I were going to tell you, but we were waiting for the right time.”
Katie was upset and furious. How could her parents not tell her about such a massive change in her life? How could they keep it from her that her mom would soon move out of their home and away from her?
Once Prudence moved out, Katie hated her life even more. She’d have to prepare her breakfast, do her laundry, and even clean her room because Frank was seldom around to help her.
This was not the kind of teenage life Katie had envisioned for herself. She wanted to go out with her rich classmates and have fun! She wasn’t supposed to make toast in the mornings and do laundry in the evenings. So one day, months after Prudence had moved out, she called her and begged her to return.
“Mom, please! Please! Just come back. I really miss you.”
“Oh honey,” Prudence said. “I miss you too. But you know, I’m doing this for us—for you. A year,” she then added. “I can’t be back before that. I can’t defy my work contract.”
Katie sounded depressed over the phone, and Prudence reassured her that everything would be alright and she’d see her soon. Prudence really wanted everything back home to be perfect while she was gone. She trusted Katie that nothing would go wrong.
But months after being apart from her daughter, Prudence got a worrying call from Katie’s school. It was the school principal on the phone, and he sounded very concerned when he told Prudence that Katie’s grades were slipping and that she might be expelled.
“Is everything well at home, Mrs. Delaney?” the principal asked further. “You know, sometimes a child’s home environment really impacts them, and I’m perturbed about Katie since she’s been a fantastic student, except for this term.”
“Oh well, no, nothing like that, sir,” Prudence said, embarrassed. “I mean, I’ll talk to Katie. She’s been fine. Nothing’s wrong at home. Her dad and I have only been supportive in whatever she does.”
“Oh, I’m afraid her performance indicates differently, Mr. Delaney,” the principal remarked. “We’re letting her off this time, but you know we won’t have a choice if her grades continue to fall.”
Prudence hung up the phone and immediately dialed Frank to find out what was going on with their daughter, but he said he had no idea. “I’m barely at home, Prudence! How am I supposed to know? And it’s not like our daughter shares anything with me. I don’t even know when she’s home!”
“What kind of a father are you, Frank? Our daughter’s doing terribly at school, and you don’t give an F about it?”
“Hey, relax, OK? I’ll talk to her, and—”
“No, there’s no need. I’ll call her tonight!”
All men are the same! Prudence angrily thought as she hung up on her husband. That night, she called Katie, and the young girl was wailing like a baby, begging her to come back.
Katie was missing her. “Please, Mom. You’re allowed to take a day off, right? I really wanted you to come home for Easter. I’m missing you.”
“I miss you too, my baby,” Prudence said. “And I assure you I’ll try to be home soon.”
Prudence and Katie had a serious talk that night, and Katie promised to focus on her academics and do her best. “I was just having trouble adjusting to everything after you left, Mom,” she’d said. “I swear I’ll do better.”
Prudence had put her faith in Katie’s words. She was dying to see Katie, too, but was worried that if she left the job, she wouldn’t be able to pay for Katie’s school and, later, college, so she decided to stay back.
“I hope everything goes well,” she whispered in tears as she hung up the phone.
For the next few weeks, Prudence called home frequently to check on Katie and ensure Frank was paying enough attention to her. When Frank told her that he was helping Katie with her studies and that her grades were improving, Prudence’s heart felt slightly relieved.
She thought everything would be back to normal now. But a few months later, shortly before Easter, she received another call from Katie’s school. This time, it was Katie’s class teacher who told Prudence that Katie had missed an entire week of school.
“I believed she was sick, Mrs. Delaney, but after not seeing her for a week, I thought I should notify you.”
Prudence assured Katie’s class teacher that she would look into the matter and talk to her daughter. But she had something else in mind. This time, Prudence didn’t tell anything to her husband and daughter and decided to go home unexpectedly to figure out what was wrong. Why wasn’t Katie attending school?
Prudence took an urgent leave and flew back home.
As she arrived, she found her house strangely quiet. “Katie? Frank?” She called out, but there were no replies.
Prudence climbed the stairs to Katie’s room, convinced she couldn’t hear her because she was using headphones. But she wasn’t there. “Where could she possibly go? It’s a Saturday, so the school must be off.”
When Prudence entered Katie’s bathroom, she smelled something foul. “Oh gosh! What is that smell?” She held her nose and looked about, but she couldn’t find anything.
Then, all of a sudden, she heard a baby’s cry! Katie’s eyes widened as she spun around at the noise. It was coming from Katie’s room!
As Prudence pulled the curtains to her daughter’s room alcove, she was shocked to find the unthinkable—a REAL baby there! “Oh gosh! What’s a baby doing here? Whose child is this? Oh! No wonder you stink, little buddy, you’ve pooped!”
Prudence realized she needed to change the baby’s diapers, but there were none at home! She searched Katie’s closet and bedside drawers but found nothing.
Prudence called Katie immediately. But the young girl was not answering the phone. Prudence didn’t stop. She kept calling Katie, and at one point, Katie answered.
“Where the hell are you?” Prudence demanded. “What in the world is a baby doing here…in your room?!”
Mom? You—You’re home?”
“Yeah, I am, and I have this little wailing baby with me right now who needs a diaper change. Please tell me it’s not what I think, Katie! WHERE DID THIS BABY COME FROM?!”
Prudence was away from home for almost six months and hadn’t expected things to go so dreadfully wrong. “Well, Mom, um,” Katie stammered. “I—I’m at the neighborhood supermarket getting baby supplies. I’ll talk to you when I get back, OK?”
“Katie, wait. Hello? Hello?”
“What’s wrong with this girl!” Prudence cried as she threw her phone on the bed. She was now sitting in Katie’s room, waiting for her to return. It seemed like an eternity before Prudence heard her front door click open, and Katie returned home.
Give me a diaper right now! And some wet wipes!” Prudence bawled out. Then she changed the baby’s diaper.
“Now,” she fumed. “You’re going to tell me everything about whatever the hell you were up to behind my back, which is why sometimes your grades dip, and the next moment you stop attending classes! Katie, please tell me you’re not related to this baby! Please!”
“OK, Mom, you’re taking it too far, alright? That baby is not mine! Sit down, please. You’ve got a lot to know…It all started after you moved out…”
Katie was crushed when Prudence moved out, and it was then that she realized how ungrateful she’d been to her parents her entire life. Her life was nothing without her parents!
She had to manage everything independently without her mother, and when her grades began to fall, her father stopped working various shifts so he could be at home and help her with her academics. That was how much they loved her, and she’d only been mean to them all her life!
At school, Katie was given an assignment by their literature teacher, Mrs. Lester, to make a presentation on the good deeds they’d done before Easter. Katie had been a self-absorbed, selfish teen her entire life, so she asked Mrs. Lester if she could do a presentation on something else. Katie had never, ever even thought of doing a good deed!
The elderly woman smiled and said, “Look around you. You’ll find a good deed to do! There are so many people out there who may need your help. All you have to do is look!”
Selfishness gets you nowhere in life.
Katie didn’t even know where to look! Nobody understood her! Then one day, she saw Mrs. Lester crying and learned the poor woman was a single grandmother to her 11-year-old grandson and newborn granddaughter.
Mrs. Lester’s widowed daughter had died in a car crash, so she was the only one her grandkids had now. Katie decided to do a good deed by helping Mrs. Lester, so she prepared a pie and took her old toys she never shared with anyone and visited Mrs. Lester to help her out with her grandchildren. The elderly teacher was grateful to the teen girl.
Then one day, Mrs. Lester had a stroke and was confined to bed. She was afraid to go to a doctor as it would spread the word she was unfit to care for her grandchildren, and then the CPS would get involved, and she would lose custody of her grandkids.
So Katie and Mrs. Lester’s grandson looked after the baby girl alternatively. That day, it was Katie’s turn to look after the baby. “And Dad was out for some project, so he doesn’t know about this…”
Prudence had tears in her eyes and hugged her daughter. “Good job, honey. I’m so proud of you!”
Prudence decided to help Mrs. Lester as she was saddened by the older lady’s plight. She persuaded Mrs. Lester to go to the hospital and get well for the sake of her grandchildren. And while Mrs. Lester was in the hospital, she decided to look after the older lady’s grandchildren.
Katie was so delighted to have Prudence back that she begged her not to leave again for her job. “But it’s for your school, honey. I can’t stay here indefinitely,” Prudence said.
“I’m not going to ask for anything, Mom, and we’ll figure it out together here. Please?” she begged her mother, wrapping her arms around her.
Prudence didn’t have a choice. She had to leave. But Katie did something unthinkable yet again, which made her mother change her decision.
She got a part-time job to help her parents and started a school charity where kids from wealthy families donate their pocket money, clothes, books, and toys to underprivileged children.
Prudence eventually decided to stay home because she realized how significant her presence was in her daughter’s life. Katie had changed, and Prudence and Frank couldn’t have been prouder of their daughter.
What can we learn from this story?
Spending love on children is more important than spending money on them. Ultimately, Prudence realizes her daughter loves and misses her, so she decides to stay home.
Selfishness gets you nowhere in life. Be happy to help others. After Prudence moves to another state, Katie realizes how selfish and arrogant she’s been not to appreciate her parents. She changes for the good and decides to help her elderly teacher.
