Can you feel useful if you can't earn money?

I live on disability. I'm fine with that. I find ways for me to be useful. I run my house because I am a tech nerd.

i was in that phase, when i just graduated from college, i didn't work right away, i was unemployed for a few months, i stayed at my aunt's house for free. since there was no money i could give her for my living expenses, i paid her with my labor and time. i became an unpaid waitress at her restaurant that had just lost one of its workers. and you know i worked voluntarily for several months without being paid. Every day after coming home from the restaurant I also had to do household chores like a housemaid and you know, that too without being paid. I felt that the labor I gave exceeded the living expenses they gave me, plus sometimes I was still threatened with food and mistreatment. but thankfully I got out of that house and now I've also got a job. it's true what people say, living in a relative's house is not always good.

Is it possible for you to get a job again and move out? Or does your health not allow it? Because you’d certainly be happier away from them. I understand feeling useless when you aren’t bringing in money.

I have always found ways to make money .

I understand how it feels to live with parents or inlaws. They expect so much out of you. I haven't worked in a long time because I take care of my husband. We live off his ssi and that don't even get us through the month. But we have to make it work because we have no one that we could live with.

It is a shame that you are criticised

I have enough money to live by myself on a budget. I would not have liked to live with my parents.

Not really. It sucks.

My husband and I have traded being the wage earner throughout our lives. He is disabled so he didn't have a job for many years. That meant that I brought in money and he stayed home, taking care of our daughter and the house. She got older and he finally landed a decent job so I stayed home and gardened etc.

To be honest, its difficult to feel "useful" when you don't earn your own money to support your own needs even if you do other things for the family and also help in other ways. Not earning your own money and depending on others hits different. People around you always has something to throw back at you. There's always this feeling that when you don't have a job, it's like you have no dignity or something to be proud of. It's like belittling yourself. That you don't have a say in things because you don't have your own money. Sometimes you feel like you're just a burden and a freeloader. There's that feeling of pity for yourself. I know the feeling because long ago, I've been there myself for sometime. No feeling comes best with earning your own money, knowing you don't depend on anyone to support your living.

I am the same. Even without a job I make a substantial income, and I planned it that way.

Why should anyone have to be useful? Useful to who? Always ask that question! I don't have an income but I do contribute in other ways, somebody has to run the house, take care of the garden and so on. But if someone can't do that, or even much of anything, it helps no-one feeling guilty about it or for anyone to try to make them feel guilty about it.

I sometimes do but I am thankful because my family never sees me that way. I have been useful in different ways, more than money can pay.