Rent

I'm still blown away.  Tristan wanted to watch the kids the other day so she could make some money.  Now mostly I don't do that for two reasons.  One, she expects it every time she plays with the kids.  And two, she doesn't benefit most of the time from the money.  I was told one time too many about how her dad took her money to buy his pills.  Tristan turns 13 at the end of July.
After she asked about playing with the kids she told me about trying to make money.  She said she was going to camp and we talked about that.  In her family you have to be 13 to go to camp because that is how old her older brother was when he went.  I don't have an opinion on that.
Then she blew me away.  She commented about also needing money for rent.  To help out the family.  Wait....what?  I'm sure her parents did not ask her to contribute to rent, or at least I hope not.  But obviously they have had too many conversations about their state of affairs that they have a girl who is so worried about it that she thinks she needs to come beg for work to make money to pay rent.  I bit my tongue.
What I wanted to say is honey....your parents are responsible for paying the rent and figuring out what they need to do to do that.  Your dad can get a job or go fly a sign. You're a kid, be a kid.  Saying it wouldn't have helped her in any way.
Wonder what she thought when all of a sudden her parents have money......pizza got delivered to the tune of $50 and they were shopping at Walmart when I was shopping at Walmart.  I just find it interesting even though it really is none of my business.