Ho Mama! A Blog for Slutty, Single, Low-income Moms
There just aren't enough Mommy Blogs out there written by slutty, single, low-income moms. So here I am to fill in that gap.
One year to the day from meeting my daughter's dad, we had a three month old baby. How slutty is that?
I've been married twice, but have seen no need to coordinate marriage with conception. I mean, really, why complicate things?
When I got pregnant, I was living in San Francisco. Upon discovering my impending BabyMama-hood, my female roommate kicked me out into the street. My male roommate, her boyfriend, went along quietly. (She seemed to think he had a crush on me).
This action would have been illegal if I'd been on the lease. But I was merely a sub-tenant. A serf. And now a pregnant serf with an $8 an hour job in one of the most expensive cities in the world. A city with a 1% vacancy rate.
Never fear, though. Slutty, single, low-income moms are nothing if not resourceful. I brought my premature baby (all five pounds of her) home from the hospital to an SRO hotel in the Tenderloin.
My daughter didn't come home to a crib or a nursery. But you know what? She didn't seem to notice. Perhaps cribs and nurseries are more for parents than for babies. Hmmmmmm.
Anyway, I did manage to find some cardboard cut-outs of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet to tape to the walls. But my daughter was much more fascinated by my face and voice than by any baby toys or cutesy decorations.
Feeding her was cheap and easy. My breasts pumped out a steady supply of milk. Feeding myself was a bit trickier. It's quite a hike from the Tenderloin to Whole Foods, especially with a baby strapped to your chest. But we managed.
I couldn't cook in our hotel room - we didn't have a refridgerator or a microwave -so I had to eat a lot of raw fruit, roasted peanuts, and protein bars.
Anyway, the lobby of our hotel was filled with loitering male prostitutes looking awkward and vulnerable in their lipstick, dresses, and cheap crooked wigs.
The hotel was owned by a large extended Indian family who did a lot of cooking. They filled the building with the sweet spicy smells of cinnamon, cardomom, chili, and cloves.
Ruffled looking men and women, in various states of intoxication, knocked on our hotel room door at all hours of the day and night, begging for money.
It was one of the happiest times of my life. My daughter's dad was able to pay our rent at the hotel, so I was able to stay "home" with her. I was in seventh heaven.
Once a week I went to a new moms' support group in a neighborhood about 2 miles, and a million light years, from the Tenderloin. Only one of the moms in the group, besides myself, was single. But she seemed to want nothing to do with me. She was fairly high-powered. She had a first class nanny picked out and living-in with her already. She clearly wasn't one of "those" single moms. And certainly not slutty. I got the distinct impression her child was conceived both expensively and immaculately - with a sterile syringe.
The rest of the moms in my new mom support group were financially secure college educated women, happily married to magnificent brilliant college-educated men, who were the most eager and devoted fathers in the whole wide world. Gag.
As you can imagine, I felt right at home.
And this may be the trouble some people have with Mommy Bloggers. Because, let's face it folks, not all Mommys are created equal.
There are, in this culture, Good Mommys and Bad Mommys.
The Best Mommys are married, upper-middle class (or better), have a college degree, worked before staying home with the children, speak english, and are both white and heterosexual.
Good (not Best) Mommys may be black (non-ebonic speaking) or hispanic (english speaking), or Asian (english speaking, culturally assimilated). But the income, education and marital status is non-negotiable.
In "liberal" communities, the sexual orientation may be negotiable, but in too many parts of the United States, it is absolutely not.
What I ask Mommy Bloggers to remember is this: If you are a married, educated, financially secure, upper middle class mom writing a blog directed at other married, financially secure, upper middle class moms, please acknowledge the fact that you are in the minority.
And you are EXTREMELY privileged. Motherhood is never easy. In your case, however, it is EASIER than it has been in any other place on earth at any other time in human history.
When you are writing about the struggle to keep romance in your marriage while toilet training a toddler, or about choreographing your child's social life on the playground, or about trying to maintain the brain cells you worked so hard to accumulate in college -please take a second to acknowledge the rest of us. Acknowledge the vastly different levels of struggle we face. And if you can, acknowledge it without judging us.
We're your sisters, too: the single, the slutty, the low-income, the illegal, the lost, the struggling, the uneducated, and clueless. We love our children just as much as you love yours. We want every bit as much for our babies as you want for yours. We are exactly the same in those ways. We just don't have (or get) all the props.
Can you be a good mother if you can't afford a crib? Can you be a good mother if you can't figure out how to find a good husband? Can you be a good mother if you never finished high school? If you can't speak english? If you live in a developing country? If you're homeless?
If not, why not?
How much is the ability to consume related to the ability to mother?
These are the questions that lurk between the lines of the typical Mommy Blog.
The Mommy Blogger's voice is privileged and rare. It can be a funny, entertaining, and enlightening voice. But it mustn't be used to drown out the voices of the vast majority of mothers on this planet.
Most mothers on the earth today are poor, uneducated, and deeply in love with their children. And they are buried in shame and silence.
So Mommy Bloggers, please - take a moment to look and see the mommys who ring up your groceries, who clean the toilets at your children's preschool, who empty the waste baskets in your husband's office. See them, notice them, reach out a hand.
They are Mommys, too.


Salon.com
Comments
You are my new favorite and please keep up the writing....Rated...
This is a profound, knife-to-the-heart, wonderfully painful, eloquent and beautifully told piece. Another winner; rated.
You are a priviledge to read, BFTQ.
Rated.
The best foundation a parent can provide for a baby is stability of all kinds--mental, moral, and financial. While I applaud your clear focus on, and celebration of, the things involved in parenthood that really matter, I cannot help questioning your decision to have a baby when your own financial and material circumstances were so unstable. My perspective may need broadening, but this seems an injustice to your baby and places you both in a very precarious position.
Your daughter has been brought up with genuine maternal care and love, not by stuff, she's a prize and a rarity. Good work.
Thanks so much for this piece of your maternal mind, heart and soul!!!
Thanks so much for this piece of your maternal mind, heart and soul!!!
"We're your sisters, too: the single, the slutty, the low-income, the illegal, the lost, the struggling, the uneducated, and clueless. We love our children just as much as you love yours."
Yes we do.
one needn't be a single mom to be in low income areas, either. many of the more privileged moms look down on anyone using an umbrella stroller as opposed to a $300 cadillac type. mine were 18 months apart; i remember one snob looking at me backing thru the door with mick in the stroller and caitie in a front pack. (bill worked at IBM back then...so i was able to be home with them. i LOVED it.) anyway, she proceeded to tell me that i had had my kids too close! i just looked at this total stranger and laughed in her face.
poverty, or just as bad, the the near-poverty of the working poor who fall between the cracks due to outdated guidelines is the real enemy here.
i don't know if you are a slut, BDTQ, but you are full of compassion, common sense and an amazing talent for writing. (r) for excellence and a lot of heart.
My office is in one of the poorest parts of our city. This week, I sat in on a couple of meetings to meet and interview finalists for the job of principal at our local charter elementary school. Let me tell you: I saw some poor, proud, and able mothers. Fiercely able.
Thank you. Rated
Stephanie
You raised several great points. It is the love you give your child, not the $700 stroller that'sgoing to make the difference in the end.
Great post!
Rated.
You are obviously a very strong person. I admire you greatly.
Don't forget to use your strength to help others less fortunate, to tread the same journey to a better place.
"This town is full of guys who think they’re mighty wise ,
Just because they know a thing or two.
You can see them every day, strolling up and down Broadway,
Telling of the wonders they can do.
You’ll see wise guys and boosters,
Card sharps and crap shooters,
They congregate around the Metropole.
They wear those flashy ties and collars,
But where they get their dollars,
They’ve all got an ace down in the hole.
Some of them write to the old folks for coin,
That’s their ace in the hole.
Others have girls on that old tenderloin,
That’s their old ace in the hole."
She stuck with the truth she discovered rather than cherry picking the responses which would sell appliances, as was the common practice. So have pity on your fellow mommy bloggers. It doesn't appear as though magazine practices have changed much. Who is going to advertise in a mag catering to people without disposable incomes?
But keep writing the truth as you see it. Worked out well for Friedan. My only nit to pick is your title. I doubt the term "slut" would be applied very often these days to a woman who conceives out of wedlock. And If I see "slutty" in the title, by God, I expect to read about slutty behavior. Guess that shows which mags I look at, ahem, read.
Great post.
HOWEVER if you are as responsible and intelligent as you claim to be then why weren't you or your partner using a method of birth control? Especially here in CA where at Planned Parenthood your income determines your ability to pay -- and at $8 an hour they would've given you birth control pills to you for free or a low, low, low rate. And condoms for free, I'm sure. THAT would have been the intelligent, responsible thing to do. Choosing to have sex and engaged in sexual activity is a very adult responsibility. As in many cases, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you can't afford the birth control or condoms, you shouldn't be engaging in the activity, end of story.
Many kudos to you for getting through your childhood traumas and picking yourself up. At some point, you have to stop blaming your current circumstances on your past. Take responsibility for your own life choices. If anything, those traumas and hardships should propel you into wanting more and better for yourself and your child.
You bring up an excellent point when it comes to class differences. Big news: even those "privileged" mommies who have the McClaren strollers and live-in nannies may not be the best mothers.
At what point did you consider that bringing a child into your situation would be unhealthy for the child? Kids are expensive and basic needs such as food, shelther, and safety need to be met. And what the heck were you doing shopping at Whole Foods during that time?! Are you kidding? My husband and I both have full time jobs and there is certainly no room in our budget to be shopping there. And you found time to go to a mother's group but not to look for a job?
It's not about being a single mother or a married mother, or a single father or married father for that matter. It's determining the responsible thing to do. It's certainly not about labeling your behavior as "slutty". Girlfriend, that is the misogyny of our society trying to hold you back and / or make you feel guilty for being a woman who wants sex or engages in sex. It is ok and normal for women to do both of those things and don't allow social pressures to make you think or feel otherwise.
I speak from experience similar to yours. I had the foresight to recognize what sort of responsibilites I could and couldn't handle in my given socio-economic status.
If you speak from experience similar to hers, it is clear you did not take the opportunity to learn anything about human compassion. Does it really make you feel better being angry and judgmental about whoever around you is not just like you? Does she challenge your values so much that you must attack her?
Historically ironic that these women are considered "bad mothers" but are always hired out to nanny and care-take the children of the "good mothers" as they pursue their privileged lives.
Excellent post!
I am not a mother, but I can't help but notice lots of judgment between the various camps. I am glad that you brought it up here.
I loved loved loved this post- been there ,done all that 25 years ago and it actually seems to be worse today to be a single/unmarried mother.
That's why I want to point out that while I totally, totally, totally understand the class differences you are pointing out--I see them in action too--that it is equally unfair for you to assume that ALL privileged mothers approach their lives and the lives of others in this way.
I can't help it any more than anyone else that I was born white, American, and privileged. I am happily married and proud of my husband. I consider it an honor to raise my family.
I am educated. I would be even if I hadn't gone to college because I believe in education yourself. It's why I homeschool, and I why I seriously regret 5 years of college that put me in great debt because I was so heavily influenced to continue no matter what the cost.
My husband has a good job, he works hard, and we do know that we are blessed and privileged for this. He makes more money than most two-income families.
But you know what? We buy our kids' clothing at thrift stores and garage sales, unless we are unable to find an item we need in their size...then we buy it as frugally as possible. We purchase my husband's professional wardrobe at outlet stores or on sale for at least 50% off. I thrift for my own wardrobe when I can, but it's hard to find clothing to fit me so I do buy new on occasion...always on the cheap.
We breastfeed, babywear, and co-sleep. Some people were horrified that my daughter didn't have a bedroom until we moved to our house last summer. (A house, by the way, that we purchased in foreclosure for no more than the price of the land that it is on and needed a lot of work that we put into it ourselves.) There are several single moms in my closest circle of friends and I don't see them as any different from me. We're moms, period.
So, why do we live this way? First of all, we have faith in God and seek to do the very best we can with what he has given us. To us, that doesn't mean having the best of everything just because we think we deserve it.
Second, we have a lot of debt, from our younger days, when we weren't raised with the kind of values we have now. We are working diligently to be free from this bondage, and our payments on medical bills, credit cards, and student loans make up 40% of our income.
Third, we give. We tithe to our church and give as generously as we can to those in need. More importantly, we don't just give of our money. We give of our time and neighborly love.
My point is, none of us are in any place to judge anyone else. I am starting a blog soon, not about all the things we buy and do, but just to highlight the simple beauty we find in our little country life, to inspire others to live simply and peacefully. I wish peace and healing to anyone who is struggling with pain from their past, and I hope that just as you want mothers who fall into your definition of privilege to be aware of those in other situations; that you and others will not automatically look at women like me who basically meet those criteria and judge us for being who we are. At the end of the day, you just don't know. We all have our struggles and we are all accountable to God.
However, I find there to be one point lacking: why in the heck did you get pregant when you had such an unstable life? Your writing is the evidence that you are a very intelligent woman. Please explain why or how such a bright, focused person decides to neither invest in reliable birth control or to keep a child she cannot afford to raise in a safe, stable environment?
Lots of people are facing hard times they never anticipated due to loss of jobs and income. Your situation is not reflective of that. I wish you well in your role as a parent but the problems you are currently facing are of your own making.
It took a lot of courage to stand strong and get through that rough time. ~ Big Hug ~ and Hooray ~
I fall in the poor single mom of a 14 y/o special needs child. At ouir toughest time, we basicaly lost everything we had so that our son could treat with a more specialized doctor (i.e. Out of Network) due to son's unusual diagnoses spectrum.
The child psychiatrist was the best of the best and his clientele of patient's was reflective of his academic status. The other parents were extermely intelligent and 'successful'; doctors & attorneys. Some were fortunate entraprenuers.
And then there was me and my son, sporting our old clothes and inexpensive footwear. Naturally, I felt insecure and somehow 'lesser' than them.
However, as I sat with these people seemingly privileged people, every Wednesday for 2 1/2, I realized we shared a common bond in the form of our challenging children.
I too felt a little wince at the anger directed at the 'blogger mommys'. I'm not one myself, but just want to say even people of financial security go through their own hellacious lives; only in a different form.
Don't get me wrong, I know too well that snooty, high brow look down the nose all too well. I think this is where the passion the post is directed.
~~~
Don't sell yourself short as far as a formal education goes. You have articulated a beautiful story of a mothers love ALL Women can relate to.
Thank you for sharing so much of yourself here!
I admire much of what the blogger wrote and I find her persepctive unique. However, there is a fair point that must be made. Why did she get pregnant?
I'm a public school teacher. I know why many young girls get pregnant and I know why I didn't for many, many years. I planned NOT to get pregnant. This blogger writes about getting pregnant like it was something OUTSIDE of her control that just happened to her. Are you kidding me? If she were 16 and uneducated, I'd be more sympathetic. As it is, she has condemned her baby to growing up in an unsafe environment.
There is nothing admirable about druggies knocking on your door at all hours to scam money. That's scary. It's a blessing that the baby is too young to understand what is going on around her, but mommy blogger better get moving on a safe home fast. You'd be amazed at what young children take in from their surroundings and the negative imapct it has on their development.
The point should never be "should someone have even had a child in the first place". Who are we to criticize LIFE?
Regardless of the circumstances in which this precious girl was conceived, born, and raised, it is evident that she has a loving, conscientious mother and it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of that. Are you suggesting that only people of privilege should raise their 1.8 children because they can afford to do so according to the world's standards, and that those who have less should not be trusted with the responsibility to raise children?
Every life is a gift that holds promise. How much joy and happiness has this child given to her mother and many others? How much has her mother sacrificed to raise her? Love is always sacrificial, my friend...which is why the poorest among us may be the best qualified to give it, and why there are so many problems in our country, because those who HAVE are teaching their children that things are more valuable than people.
We may look to the past if we confine ourselves to heavily to the norms we've placed on our own society. How many children in human history have been born into less than ideal circumstances? In the midst of wars? terrors? famines? diseases? And, if you teach history in your work, you may notice that history is full of great people who came from the most humble of circumstances.
Please consider this before demanding an account from someone as to the very existence of a human life.
Hardship, poverty, trauma do not equal authenticity. Everyone has a story that is deeper than we can ever know just by sizing them up in the supermarket line, or even reading their blog.
Wow. "who are we to criticize life?" Where is the criticism of "life" in my statement? OTOH, I freely admit to criticizing the poor life choices that parents make, but entail suffering on the part of children. Here's a news flash for you: Poverty's a real drag on children.
Perhaps you don't know that because you don't have experience working with children who live in poverty. There's nothing heroic or wonderful about children who lack proper clothing, food and a safe and stable home. Their lives are difficult and stressful and it's not fair. I've bought food for students, warm clothing and bookbags. I'm lucky to have those resources to give. The fact is that I cannot stand it when a child has to go without. They all deserve better.
It's easy to throw stones at the Coach bag moms but that's not really what this blogger's struggles are about.
--another slutty mommy
I do know a thing or two about children living in poverty. I lived among them for two years in a devastated neighborhood in a declining city. I served meals to those in need, purchased school supplies for the neighboring children, provided basic over-the-counter medication when their parents could not. I also spent several years teaching in child centers where I cared for children of all circumstances. I look forward to participating in an upcoming mission trip to aid Appalachian families living in poverty. So, I am truly familiar with the suffering of some children.
It sounds like you are a dedicated teacher and your students are blessed to have someone like you looking out for their best interests.
But I must disagree with you when you say there is "nothing heroic or wonderful" about impoverished children. They are children, no matter what their circumstances. And it does them no good whatsoever to say things that amount to "they should have never been conceived in the first place". My 78-year-old neighbor is the youngest of 5 children. Her father died when she was 9 months old and her mother still managed to support them in the middle of the Great Depression. They had very little...even today's standards of poverty are bright and comfortable compared to what they had...but she told me that through all of that, they never even knew they were poor. She never had any idea that she was, in other people's eyes, in a disadvantaged situation. They were happy. There was so much love in their family that today, 70 years later, THAT is what she remembers about her childhood. Perhaps it is doing a disservice to children to give them the idea that they are poor.
My overall point is that people are to be treated with dignity and respect, and just because a child lives a life of poverty (and I am well aware of what that truly entails), we can't say they should not have been born or that their mother should have been more responsible. It doesn't matter.
The author indicates that she is thankful to have a roof over her head, and that her daughter is growing up healthy and happy without all the trappings, bells, and whistles of this world. I don't see anything tragic about her situation and I pray for them and every family out there who suffers. God will restore all things...we are just responsible for how we live our own lives and how we treat others.
It's time to shed this notion that Money = Good Parenting.
Love = Good Parenting, and I have much of it for all my kids.
Peace!
YOU are the one with the privilege, you are NOT the one being oppressed. YOU don’t get to claim that YOU are being judged by this person because whether or not you acknowledge it, there is an imbalance of social equity between the two of you. YOU have the balance of privilege in this situation and with that comes the responsibility to not pull this kind of derailment and blame the person with less privilege for judging you. This post which is highlighting privilege is NOT “judgement”, it is social awareness raising, it is hard work and your comment ignores the discourse of privilege (by saying, “You think you are oppressed, why, hey, you are oppressing me!”) and perpetuates the very thing that this post is attempting to unpack. Got it?
And let me tell you, the cult of perfect parenting, especially for moms, can be just as psychologically devastating for married working moms. You just do the best you can from day to day.
What else is there to do?
(And when you can, check out consignment shops and second hand stores. SF has to have some good ones. Nothing against Goodwill (a great source for clothes, especially when they're pretty much growing out of stuff instantly) but some of these places have excellent toys in working condition dirt cheap.
Who is anybody other than me to judge her ability as a parent? And who can judge me in my now-happy life with a supportive husband and healthy baby as gag-worthy? I'm not trying to excuse the way the author has been treated by other mothers. But the negativity with which this post was written actually adds more fuel to the fire of criticism. And let's not forget that mistreatment doesn't just happen across income or racial lines. Rich can be nasty to rich, and poor can be nasty to poor.
You put it very gently, thank you very much.
I too share your perspective. While it’s laudable to bring a life into this world and offer love to that little person, there’s also “quality of life” to consider. It’s one of the reasons that abortion was so hard-fought-for in the 60s and 70s. You'were not so much judgmental so much as honest.
Sorry, but the idea of living in a fleabag hotel w/hustlers in the lobby doesn’t sound like a healthy way to live, no matter how much “love” was extant. Living hand-to-mouth is unhealthy for anyone, let alone an infant.
"Ruffled looking men and women, in various states of intoxication, knocked on our hotel room door at all hours of the day and night, begging for money?" BFTQ is lucky none of those losers or their customers made a move on either her or the kid.
In case everyone forgot, this is 1 more illustration of the breakdown of the family. Remember “shotgun weddings?” Well, you don’t see them anymore b/c no one cares about whether that child is legitimate or not. Those weddings may have ended by whatever device—as indeed, so many seem to anyway—but the point was to give the child a name other than “bastard.” There are people who still feel that way, you know. Not to mention how employable (or NOT) the mother becomes when seeking employment to support said child, dooming that child not only to poverty but to deprivation of opportunities that might help the kid out of repeating her foolish mother's pattern of behavior. That poor child is the product of lust and folly, rendering BFTQ’s pious justifications of being “poor but loved” a little less than genuine.
For someone w/a MASTER’S degree, BFTQ doesn’t seem either to have learned much or about behaving responsibly about birth control—or about being an adult. I’m no shining example of perfection, but I knew myself and my limitations well enough to know I’d be a poor mother to any child.
"Most mothers on the earth today are poor, uneducated, and deeply in love with their children. And they are buried in shame and silence." Perhaps, but had they been adults and behaved more responsibly BEFORE dropping those kids, they wouldn't be "buried in shame." Anyone can make a mistake--once. After that, you knew better but just "didn't wanna."
Being an (alleged) Adult means accepting responsibility and the consequences of your actions. You want sex, protect yourself. If you don't, and get knocked-up, then make damn sure you're able to care for that child properly. Sorry, but "(making) $8 an hour..in one of the most expensive cities in the world...a city with a 1% vacancy rate" and having a child, does not sound responsible.
I feel sorry for that kid.
Which is a sad truth. WE are amidst a new new baby mama generation, that leads me to believe marriage will be obsolete in our time. I only pray the moms you are referring to, are able to over-come as well as you have by focusing on good choices. Its going to be interesting to see how our world has evolved in twenty years, when these kids become our future.
Divorced, proudly independent single mom of 4 years.
Hope to hear much more from you!
I've seen single mothers making conscious decisions to teach their children well. I've seen them rise to the occasion, loving their kids with grace and good humor. I loved this part:
"How much is the ability to consume related to the ability to mother?" Sheer brilliance!!!! So very -Rated-
My mother was the good African-American mother you mentioned who doesn't speak Ebonics, is educated, was a virgin when she got married to a minister, and did everything "right" but had a nervous
breakdown after losing a child and a father and literally gave me away to her mother because she was pregnant and had a toddler, my brother, and couldn't handle rearing me, too. Lucky for me, my brother refused to be separated from me and we are still close. I'm sure my mother loves me, but it was my grandmother who nurtured me. I've seen poor, single, uneducated, "slurry" moms handle a lot more and still manage to rear their with no husband. Rated
Ironically, I sit on my floor snuggling my 1 year old now as a middle class SAHM. I was not always one.
When my first daughter was born- I was married to a man not her father (abusive horrid marriage taking forever to end). Was just starting a waitressing job, a house with no gas in the middle of foreclosure, living in a neighborhood that was dodgy at best.
My daughter did not have the trappings of a first baby- I did not have a shower I was an embarrassment to my family. My family pressured me to give her up for adoption.
6 years later a new husband, a college education, a career, and 3 more children, I am the minority the privileged. My days recovering from an abusive marriage, as a slutty low income mom are never mentioned- but I never forget them. I think about them often. I am thankful for them they taught me how to mother with my instincts.
Ironically, I sit on my floor snuggling my 1 year old now as a middle class SAHM. I was not always one.
When my first daughter was born- I was married to a man not her father (abusive horrid marriage taking forever to end). Was just starting a waitressing job, a house with no gas in the middle of foreclosure, living in a neighborhood that was dodgy at best.
My daughter did not have the trappings of a first baby- I did not have a shower I was an embarrassment to my family. My family pressured me to give her up for adoption.
6 years later a new husband, a college education, a career, and 3 more children, I am the minority the privileged. My days recovering from an abusive marriage, as a slutty low income mom are never mentioned- but I never forget them. I think about them often. I am thankful for them they taught me how to mother with my instincts.
One time I couldn't afford a fancy venue like the bowling alley or skating rink for my daughter's birthday party and so I drew 101 dalmations and hung them everywhere. We played bingo, ate cake made from a box, and all the decorations were taken home for favors. It was one of our finest hours.
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