Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassie325
This is a tough situation for this family and many others. The economy is hard on everyone....day care is expensive and not readily available around here. However we have all offered many suggestions that could help this particular family with out hurting too many people.
Here is a twist to the question of grandchildren....just because I am curious to hear the responses....I can't take credit for the "original" thought of this question....I won't mention any names just in case...but one of our member's husband thought this question out loud one time....if that member wants to take credit...she is welcome too...I just didn't want to name anyone... 
What if a single parent (presuming the other parent was passed on or serving as well) of 1 or 2 kids was in the military. What if that parent was called to serve our country overseas in Iraq or anywhere else...serving our country....and had no where else to leave their children....no one other than grandma and grandpa.....
Granted some military only have to be gone for 6 months and Grands can go stay with the kids....BUT what if they were extended like so many have....and the grandparents lived here in TV's....would we expect them to move out of TV's because their child was serving our country.....
I think it would be a very sad day....but it sounds like many of you would...thank your child for the service..but get out of TV's with those kids....
I hope I am misreading your messages....but that of course would be an exception to the rules....and we can not have any of that...or could we?
Again....not looking for an argument...just opinions.... |
As someone too familiar with that situation the answer is a simple one - You know what the requirements of the job are when you took it and accepted the money. If you have kids who must live elsewhere while you are deployed, you must make arrangements for that potential as part of your personal parental responsibilities. If you have become a single parent, you can opt out of the military due to family hardship, but if you continue to take the money, you take the responsiblities that go with it.
The Villages as an entity
was not designed for children, and that's its attraction. TV does
not have county school bus routes or other support systems for children. The 55+ is meant for good reason. The place was designed based on a specific population age group and its needs. That's why there's eight cardiologists and a slew of other physicians geared towards an older population, and only one pediatrician with The Villages Medical Center privileges.
If catastrophic family situations occur which require grandparents to take care of children, TV is not the place for the grandparents and grandchildren to reside. That's just the way it is, mainly because the absence of children support services makes such care totally impractical, the covenants notwithstanding.
We can dream up many scenarios where parents feel they have to take their kids' responsibilities as their own, but in each of those scenarios those folk bear the cost and inconvenience. We all knew that when we signed those covenants that TV was an environment that is age-restrictive, and that was and is its primary attraction.
Trying to make TV residents seem "unpatriotic" because kids can't live here is a cheap shot. There's a lot of us here with extensive service time and the scars that go with it, and we don't have to prove our patriotism by agreeing to watch our retirement community turn into just another town.
We came to TV knowing full well that the 55+ may very well impact the potential to be the family landlord, and that multigenerational households were totally counter to the TV structure.
I've got kids with kids (one in Korea with her child and Army husband right now), and we've had to face the fact that if something happened where a kid with kids came back and we were expected to solve the problem, that we'd have to make arrangements for them somewhere in Fruitland Park or elsewhere and suck in the costs and other headaches. The other alternative would be moving from TV completely because the family circumstances would no longer be conducive with the "retirement community" lifestyle.
Expecting the retirement community to morph itself into something other than what it is just is not realistic, nor is it reasonable.