What The Hell America!

A working mother of two shares how guaranteed income is helping her return to school, navigate paid leave challenges and build a better future for her family.

A groundbreaking Ms. series, Front & Center first began as first-person accounts of Black mothers living in Jackson, Miss., receiving a guaranteed income from Springboard to Opportunities’ Magnolia Mother’s Trust (MMT). Moving into the fourth year and next phase of this series, the aim is to expand our focus beyond a single policy intervention to include a broader examination of systemic issues impacting Black women experiencing poverty. This means diving deeper into the interconnected challenges they face—including navigating the existing safety net; healthcare, childcare and elder care; and the importance of mental, physical and spiritual well-being.

My name is Amaya, and I’m a 25-year-old mother of two: Aubrey, who is 5, and DeMarcus, who is 6 months old.

I try to make life fun for them. The baby loves watching SpongeBob, but then I got him a stuffed one and he’s scared of it, so I guess he just wants him to stay in the TV! I love Harry Potter so Aubrey and I will watch those movies together. She also loves to do her nails, so I got a little at-home kit, but no, she wants to be at the salon like a big girl.

I feel very fortunate that my kids go to the same daycare my sister and I went to as kids, and I’ve even worked there in the past. They go there with their cousins, so it’s nice that it’s a family thing and I don’t have to worry about whether they’re safe. 

I work right now at the Kroger grocery store decorating cakes. Cake decorating runs in my family. My grandma and my aunt both did it, and I even started out working under my aunt’s guidance. My sister also does it. Now, I’m holding down the fort at Kroger. I’ve been doing it for seven years. I really enjoy having my own personal space to do my work. As a mom, there’s not a lot of quiet or personal space at home so it’s nice to have it at work. I used to bake on the side, but now I mostly stick to banana pudding and the occasional cake or cupcakes for friends. My kids have a hard time understanding that I may be baking for someone else. It is hard when your little one thinks everything you bake belongs to them.

But if I could have any job in the world, I would be a forensic chemist. Science has always been my passion, and I even started a degree in it at Jackson State. I had to put it on hold when I had my daughter, and I only have two classes left! I am drawn to the role because it incorporates my love of science, but you’re dealing with deceased people, so there’s no risk of causing any harm to them. I know it may sound strange, but it’s important to me to have a job where you can’t hurt anyone.

It is important for me to get back to school. My life has been centered around my kids, but I know it’s time to take a step back for myself. I have even started studying the classes I have already passed, just to refresh my memory. I applied to go back for the spring semester, and I am ready.

What I am bringing in now with my job helps pay my car note, plus my car recently needed repairs. Working helps with food and daycare expenses. I am grateful to have recently moved into a new subsidized housing apartment. I applied when I was pregnant and was called three months after I had my baby, which was a relief because before that we were living with my mom, and I wanted my own place for me and my kids.

It is important for me to get back to school. My life has been centered around my kids, but I know it’s time to take a step back for myself. … I applied to go back for the spring semester, and I am ready.

I’m part of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust this year, so that money will help me offset the lost income of going back to school part time. It was a revelation to be able to cover multiple things in one day that I would’ve had to space out for weeks before. I bought diapers, paid my car note and the light bill. That feeling of being able to take care of things has relieved a lot of stress. Before, it was so hard. I would cry in the shower so my kids wouldn’t hear me. 

I didn’t have paid leave for the first four weeks after DeMarcus was born, because the paperwork wasn’t filled out. That was stressful. Once the right paperwork was submitted, I had to catch up on car notes and pay back people I borrowed money from. I had a C-section after there were complications; I was first pushing for eight hours. It was scary since I was thinking about what would happen to my daughter as well if something happened to me. It was not how I envisioned the birth.

That experience really opened my eyes to how important it is to have better family leave policies in this country. It is not enough to just offer a few weeks of leave. We need to support mothers’ mental health as well. Pregnancy care is focused on prenatal care, but there needs to be more mental health support. I went through postpartum depression myself, and it was so bad that I didn’t want anyone to see my baby. It takes a village to raise a child, but not everyone has that village. We need judgment-free spaces where mothers can talk about their experiences, their struggles and their dreams. We need someone to ask, “How are you?” and truly listen to the answer.

I think the government should be covering six weeks of paid leave for all employees who give birth. It takes a lot to work while pregnant and then to go back to work without your baby. Some women do not have any support, and some jobs will let you go once they find out you are pregnant. It is not right.

Most days I feel stressed and pulled in too many different directions: I want to do full-time work. I want to be home with my kids. I want to go back to school. I want to do this, I want to do that. But I’m one person. So I have my ups and downs. But I try to look at the bigger picture, and spend time with my kids to decompress. Just do something that I like to do. Something that makes me happy. Whatever it takes to not give up, because that’s just not an option.

One of my long-term goals is to either buy or rent a house. I’m in a two-bedroom now, and I want my kids to eventually have their own rooms, their own space. I grew up without furniture where I lived. I want them to have things I didn’t have.

In the short term, I’m trying to celebrate the wins where I can. I just got a promotion to lead decorator at work, and my car will be paid off next month. And I found out I got back into school. So there’s a lot of good, joyful things happening in my life right now.