Struggling a bit with life in general

So I am 45 years old, married for almost 25 years with a 22 year old daughter. I am definitely pre-menopausal. I have been running my home daycare for 22 years. I have arthritis in both knees so pain is an issue most days. My eyesight isn't what it used to be and I am going to the optometrist tomorrow for the first time in my life and it scares me to death. Silly I know. We are struggling financially and just as we think things are getting better I find out I am losing a full time child at the end of Dec and will have an empty space for a month and a half but I am thankful to have filled the spot quickly. My daughter has requested a new phone for Christmas but the one she wants only comes with the same size memory as the one she has now so she is only going to have the same issues she does now. I tried to tell her this but she said that she could have got one for free yesterday as part of the black friday sales, I think there must have been a catch but I apparently don't know anything. We got a great deal on the newest generation of iphone so we got it for her but it is sounding like she doesn't want it. UGH! Sorry for the crazy all over the place post and thanks for reading my gloom and doom.

Chin up! I find November in general is depressing I hear for a lot of people...I don't know why... for daycare I think it's the realization we have to put on all the toddler's winter clothes. Last week took 1/2 hr to get everyone ready and then someone pooped! I'm 49, and haven't really noticed any menopausal symptoms yet, but my diet is very clean...very little whites like flour and sugar, lots of veggies, hardly any junk and that has made a huge difference for me. I used to be arthritic but not anymore. I found it really hard to transition my diet (lots of google help on how to get rid of candidas) especially with 3 teens in the house. But now it's easier and they are adapting a better diet too.
One really good thing in your post is that you filled your spot already... that is definitely a positive... I've had spots go for months, although i'm in a very good place now with all filled. Can change in a heartbeat tho.
Not sure what to do on the phone thing - for a big ticket item, perhaps she can pay for half. Luckily my teens haven't asked for much but we went through a job loss this fall with my hubby and I think they are actually sensitive to that. I always tell my self in life that things could be worse. just look at the news.

Thanks for the kind words ladies! It is all just so frustrating sometimes, i have a 2 and a 3 yr old in care rght now. And they are both challenging children, the 2 year old has just typical 2 yr old issues but the 3 yr old is just angry all the time. Makes for very long days. As far as my daughter's phone goes, I think I am going to keep the new one and reset the one I have since it is the model she wants but has double the memory of hers. She wants black but she will just have to deal with it. I am off from Dec 24 till Jan 3 so I hope I can recharge my batteries a bit an start 2016 in a positive frame of mind.

Just last night I was having a life struggle moment lol!!! Work wise, everything is great!! Great kids, nice families, spaces full, blah blah blah. However, I'm turning 30 in Feb and feel pressured to figure out if kids are in our future or not. If I'm really honest with myself, I think the answer is no actually. I naturally suck at making decisions anyways but once I decide, it's pretty set in stone. This decision is really hard though because you can never experience what it's like to see both sides and it's tough to decide what is best for us....

I almost 55. I found hardest part of my life was children who are young adult but still home. They take thing for granted and nothing is good enough. If you buy them car, it not the right one. If you buy them phone, it not the right one. We have 4 boys. Youngest is 23 and not live home but in Toronto near other son, because he in school there. For first two son I had many hard time where I never seem to reach their expectation and my husband reminded me that it not my responsibility to fuel their unreasonable demand. It came crunch for me, when I trying to save for car for second son, and he wanted different one. Then my husband remind me that no one give us car when we his age and World not stop turning.

When you stop trying compete with child's friends or child's wishes, you handing them back responsibility to achieve own dream. If son wish for car, son need figure out how he going achieve that dream. This not magic kingdom where he have dream and wake in morning to find it materialized with no effect from self.

It hard. It worst time of parenting when child too young to be child but not old enough to finance own life and home. Don't let them feel you underachieving as adult when really it your child having want and unwilling to work to make reality.

Maybe your daughters phone is good enough if she deletes stuff she isn't using? Clearing data and cookies in the browsing data also creates room. I think she is old enough to understand that you are low on money this year for Christmas and buying an expensive phone is not really an option right now. The true meaning of Christmas is not about the gifts anyways, it's about spending time together. In the future, you may want to get her to start saving for her own major purchases. It's a good learning experience so she can become more independent with her own money and teaches them that phones don't grow on trees lol

Very true, she does keep deleting photos and such and the issues started after the last update. She does understand that money is tight and she does work full time, so she does help out when she can. She is also working hard to pay off her own debts. The new phone was the only thing she asked for this year, with the exception of a few small items.

My son say that Walmart online have range of unlocked phone. They called BLU. Can buy Android phone and just insert her current SIM card into BLU phone. They not very expensive. Maybe look and see if one of these would be upgrade.

Thanks Suzie, we got an iphone 6 as an upgrade through our current plan for a really good price but she wants the 5S 32g, which is no longer available. My phone is the model that she wants and is 32g, so I am just going to restore mine to factory and give it to her. Then I will use the 6.

Ya those updates take a lot of space. There was one recent update that didn't even fit in my phone and I had to delete apps just to upload the update. I wonder if she resets the phone to factory status if it would delete data that is no longer needed? I would just google the type of phone she has and how to clear old data. My iphone was acting slow and I went into the safari settings and deleted the browsing history and website data and is working like new again.

Thanks for the info , we will look into doing that. How do you get into the safari settings?

Click settings, then scroll down to safari. Safari means internet I guess, don't know why it just isn't called internet options lol.