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Community Corner

A Young Woman's Dilemma: Education vs. Spending Time With Daughter

After letting Grandma watch over her little girl while she worked and went to school, Chrissie Macial says things are finally "back to normal."

As a young mother, Chrissie Maciel is learning to give up time with her daughter. She recently got a degree in medical billing from Concorde Career Colleges while working at on El Cajon Boulevard to make ends meet. To compensate for the long hours, Maciel’s mom helped raise little Lylianna, now 5.

“It’s really hard, because even though you know you want something better for you and your kids, you know you gotta work,” said Macial, 24. “At one point, we weren’t that close because of my mom―because she helped a lot with Lylianna.”

She says the assistance was essential, but that didn’t stop it from hurting when her daughter grew to prefer time spent with Grandma. There were even some arguments over how to raise her, which were stressful.

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But things have gotten better lately, says Macial. She was promoted to Subway’s manager, married a man both she and her daughter love and Lylianna is finally comfortable spending time at home again.

“I have her full time, and I take her to school and pick her up and we visit my mom,” she said. “Before we used to go to my mom’s house and she would cry because she didn’t want to go home with me. But everything is back to normal now. ”

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