This woman’s daughter is currently in high school, and of her daughter’s best friends, Lily, just turned eighteen right as the school year started.
Sadly, though, Lily’s parents actually kicked her out on the same day as her birthday.
“My daughter told me she was sleeping on different friends’ couches and talking about dropping out to work a job. I just can’t imagine a parent kicking their kid out like that,” she explained.
So, she decided to take Lily in and support her for the rest of her senior year.
After doing this, though, her daughter and Lily both thought it would be a good idea to host a community barbecue and bake sale in order to fundraise some money for Lily’s food and housing expenses.
She never asked the girls to do this, but they wanted to find some way to contribute. And she thought that was incredibly kind.
Anyway, the girls created flyers and promotions for social media about the event. And they were pretty transparent about what was going on.
They called the event “Community Barbecue / Fundraiser For Lily” and even included a little note from Lily herself.
“As you may know, my parents kicked me out of the house and cut off any financial support on my eighteenth birthday– leaving me homeless with no money or car. The Smiths gave me a home, expecting nothing in return except that I stay in school and graduate. I want to do something to give back and pay my own way!” Lily wrote on the flyer.
Volodymyr – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purpose only, not the actual person
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And amazingly, after she and the girls shared it on social media, the event was a huge success. Nearly all of her neighbors showed up, along with a ton of children from her daughter’s school.
Plus, many family members and family friends even made an appearance to show their support for Lily.
So, her daughter and Lily ended up raising several thousand dollars– which she has big plans for.
“I ended up putting the money in an education fund for Lily, where I am also putting stuff like the cash she gives me from her job ‘for groceries’ and stuff like that. I am planning on surprising her with it closer to graduation,” she said.
However, even though the event went swimmingly, she received some serious backlash from Lily’s parents afterward.
Apparently, they saw she had posted the flyer on her community’s public Facebook page and realized everyone in town had learned about them kicking out Lily.
So, Lily’s dad became furious, called her up screaming, and accused her of “slandering” the family online.
“But, I told him to either buck up and act like a parent ought to or lose my number. He started yelling on the phone again, so I hung up and blocked his number,” she recalled.
Then, she started getting even more calls from another number which she later realized was Lily’s mother.
The mom claimed she had no idea what they had been through and said it was “trashy” of her to beg the whole town for money and act like it was their fault.
After that, she simply asked Lily’s mom if it really was their fault. But, the mom simply claimed they had “given their daughter everything” and that Lily was just ungrateful.
Anyway, now she is stuck in a really bizarre situation. She does not know exactly what happened between Lily and her parents– but she is quite certain that it was not an issue of drug or alcohol usage since she has always known Lily to be a “straight edge” student.
Nonetheless, she is not sure if allowing her daughter and Lily to bluntly publicize what had happened with Lily’s parents was the wrong way to handle the situation.
Do you think it was wrong of her to out Lily’s family, or did they do it to themselves? How would you navigate this situation?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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