When my children were young and I was married to there father, they always had wonderful Christmas's. After the divorce they lived 5 yrs with their grandpa where he had remarried a evil nurse whom abused my kids physically, emotionally , I finally got them back and I was in an abusive situation by then. We spent our first Christmas together at the Women's shelter. They tried to prevent my son from staying there too. I thru a fit and said either we all stay or we all go but I didn't let them stop us. My son did stay thru Christmas and then around New Year's eve He started stayed at my brother's house until I had raised enough money to get our own place.
Later a black woman and small boy came to the shelter, and her 2 yr old was scared to death you could tell, his mom had to do the dishes even if first night there, even tho her face was swollen from her beatings, and then feed herself and son.
The woman left to watch the shelter that evening kept the kid from his mom and basically scared the kid more, I got very angry over this crap.
They pulled stupid rules on people and new ones coming in had to do the dishes and cook for all others or at least for theirselves. How freaking insensitive was that. I went over all of their heads and went put a stop to these rules, it took me two hours or more talking to management of the women's shelter that next day. And That woman running the place had to take sensitivity classes and after that she finally end up fired cause another lady that I met days before I left the place she took up the fight after me, cause neither of us liked these stupid rules. The night she came in I did the dishes and cooking in her place, I told her she could go lie down.
Now the rule is they have several days before having to put in work.
So women's shelter's are not as pleasant as some might think. But I stood up for what I believed in at that darn place.