Why We Do What We Do: A Single Mom Works Hard In and Out of the Home

A Rent-A-Center customer in Pennsylvania, Margie, is raising seven children while also working outside her home. “No laziness here,” she says. In this video, she shares how she creates a quiet, peaceful space for her brood and how her friends at Rent-A-Center are “like family.”

Video Transcript: Why We Do What We Do

I wish my brother was here to hold my hand through this.

My name is Margie, I am 35 years old and we are in the Knoxville area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I am raising seven kids, I provide everything I can for them, but I do make them work for what they want. No laziness here.

I get up at 6:40 in the morning and I go till 2 am in the morning. And I’m back at it again. Make sure everything’s done right, set up, ready for the kids to go to school, and then I go back to work.

This is where I prep meals for seven kids and I. I am headed to hopefully being a manager at work, and hopefully, I’m going to accomplish that by the end of this year.

I actually have a deep freezer that was sitting right here–I bought that from Rent-A-Center. The stereo right there...everything. That’s my whole, everything.

I get treated right from Rent-A-Center. I have friends there. You know, they’re like family to me even though they shouldn’t be but they’re like family to me.

If you don’t have money, just run out and grab something for what you need. I needed a fridge, my refrigerator stopped working, they brought me on the same day when I called.

This is my favorite room in my house. When family and friends come over we can sit here and you know, chat, do whatever. We always have a good time sitting down to eat dinner together.

This is where me and my children get to spend time together. That’s the time that we can get our stomachs full and this is basically where everything happens at right here, is talking over our problems

Umm, actually, this table’s rented from Rent-A-Center. You have to have respect to get respect, and that’s one of my things: it always has to be “thank you ma’am, no ma’am or yes ma’am.”

And we just repainted, about a year ago in here or two years. So I just am trying to put things together in a better, different lifestyle than I was living. I wanna try to create a home that’s quiet and peaceful.

This is my living room, I try to keep it as you know as nice as possible. Everything in here is from Rent-A-Center for sure. We always try to do something together, family, friends, whatever–we try to do something with everybody.

My kids can come here and this is their home, it’s not my home, it’s their home. And that’s the way I look at it.