{"id":250,"date":"2018-07-03T06:23:49","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T06:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/still-on-the-edge\/?p=250"},"modified":"2018-07-03T13:34:44","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T13:34:44","slug":"taking-unpaid-time-off-for-her-son-puts-their-future-on-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/still-on-the-edge\/2018\/07\/03\/taking-unpaid-time-off-for-her-son-puts-their-future-on-hold\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Unpaid Time Off For Her Son Puts Their Future On Hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

On paper, Natalie Berquist has a good, steady grip on her life. She’s\u00a0had the same job for five years\u00a0and\u00a0earns $17 an hour, with benefits.\u00a0Despite making more than double the minimum wage, she was struggling when we met her five years ago. And now, she\u2019s still juggling work, money and a more complicated version of motherhood.<\/em><\/p>\n

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At this point in the year, the\u00a0notion of a paid sick day, personal day or vacation day\u00a0feels\u00a0like a\u00a0distant memory\u00a0to Natalie Berquist.<\/p>\n

She’s been out of paid time off since the beginning of the year. That’s because her 9-year-old son, Samuel, struggles with severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, as well as other mental health\u00a0and behavioral problems. He has several doctor appointments and therapy sessions, and there are also days where he just can’t be at school.<\/p>\n

“They do the best to keep him, but there are sometimes I have to pick him up,\u201d she said. \u201cThey just can’t continue to have Samuel at school when he’s just, you know, not safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Natalie Berquist and her 9-year-old son, Samuel, pose for a selfie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And when the school calls, Berquist has to leave work. She’s 47 now, and has\u00a0been with\u00a0the same company for more than five years, working in customer service for Mr. Cooper, a mortgage company in Denton County.<\/p>\n

She says\u00a0taking unpaid time off\u00a0makes it tough to pay the bills and impossible to save up for a place to live.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to recently just go get us an apartment. But they’re like, ‘Yeah, we need another deposit,’\u201d she said. \u201cI don’t know who has $2,400 to move into an apartment, but not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Berquist and her son live with her brother, who\u2019s a truck driver and out of town a lot. He\u2019s been happy to share his home with them, rent free.<\/p>\n

When we first met Berquist five years ago,\u00a0she was renting an apartment in Lewisville. It had next to no furniture. She moved there not long after a stint in a homeless shelter where she landed\u00a0after a brief layoff.<\/p>\n

Now, if she didn’t have her brother’s home as a safety net, she says she and Samuel would be back in the shelter.<\/p>\n

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