| elliesmom |
| (Carpal \'Tunnel) |
| 03/09/12 12:01 PM |
Re: Little SS update.
|
In a nutshell the stipend thing basically. Not all of it has come to fruition yet, but that is because of his good behavior and circumstances outside his control.
He has 3 jobs. He tutors, he works in the physics lab, and his restaurant job closed but he got another one at cracker barrel.
I still pay his rent (which includes utilities). Mainly because I negotiated with the guy who owned the house a discount to pay it by direct deposit. The lease was up at the end of December. We said if his grades were not B or better he had to move out or renegotiate the lease. Other wise I would keep paying it until May (when he finishes CC and will want to move closer to the university) at which time we will switch to me increasing his stipend. His grades were all B or better so he bought himself an extension.
Right now his stipend is $60/mo for car insurance and a phone. He has to supplement that with his money, because he totalled 2 cars and thus we removed him from our insurance and only pay him the pre-accident difference. We pay him what his cell cost us and kicked him off our plan. He must maintain a working phone where we can contact him or I will cut him off totally. I am not handing out money to people who could be in a ditch for all I know.
We are also paying for the one class he is taking at the university as his loans only cover CC costs. We are maintaining the reimbursement system with the loans (deducting from what we "owe" him what we pay out of pocket for tuition). If he continues to do well he'll get a decent chunk of change when he graduates. We may have to divide it over 2 tax years.
If he keeps his grades up he will get the money we current pay for rent/bills. If not the amount will be reduced. We have a chart for GPA to Living Cost reimbursement we are following.
I also decided that my resentment over his actions were causing me to not be the parent I should be. I am not his mother, but his mother has washed her hands of him for the most part. So I have tried to do a little more for him like what my family did for me (care packages etc.). I can honestly say that sometimes he calls just to chat. I found out from him (instead of Facebook, LOL) he broke up with his girlfriend. Maybe for good this time - for the first time it was totally no drama just over (miracle with this girl - DRAMA QUEEN). He won't say WHY, but that's ok. He has a friend who fixes cars on the cheap and shows him how he does stuff - he is really enjoying learning this stuff and getting his car fixed too.