upworthy

Jacalyn Wetzel

Friendship

Why Jimmy Carter allowed a convicted felon to nanny his children in the White House

The Carters knew her before he became president.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Jimmy Carter allows convicted felon to nanny in White House

President Jimmy Carter is often known for his kind nature. Carter focused heavily on diplomatic solutions to problems during his presidency and seemed to take great care on issues that impacted American citizens. He and his late wife Rosalynn Carter even built homes with Habitat for Humanity well into their 90s. Since the former president passed away December 29, people have been reminiscing on his legacy of kindness with one of the stories being about the Carters' fight to employ a convicted felon as a nanny.

Before Carter was president he served as the governor of Georgia, which is where he and Rosalynn met Mary Prince Fitzpatrick, an inmate convicted of murder. The woman, who later returned to her maiden name, was working on an inmate release program when she became a nanny for the Carters' youngest child, Amy.

As the small family got to know Prince, they found that she was wrongly convicted of the serious crime based on seemingly inadequate legal representation. Rosalynn details in her 1984 memoir that Prince's court appointed attorney "persuaded her to plead guilty to a murder she hadn’t committed. She was young, Black and penniless, so she did as he told her and got a life sentence in prison.”

File:Amy Carter playing on the White House grounds with Mary ...commons.wikimedia.org

According to an interview with People in 1977, Prince was out on the town with her cousin who got into an argument with another woman and pulled out a gun. Prince says she attempted to wrestle the gun away from the two women when the firearm went off, killing the male companion of the woman her cousin was in an altercation with. She fully denies anything intentional and claims to have believed the plea she was signing was for involuntary manslaughter.

Prince worked for Jimmy and Rosalynn the entire time they were in the governor's mansion becoming close with the family. So much so that Amy reportedly screamed when Prince had to return to prison unable to move to the White House with them. Prince was left to face a life sentence for a crime in which she was wrongly convicted. This was the catalyst for the Carters push for Prince to come to D.C. and for her case to be reexamined.

File:Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter kissing at the Democratic National ...commons.wikimedia.org

The nanny explains to People, "When I left Amy really screamed. Later Mrs. Carter would come and see me at the Fulton County Jail and the Atlanta Work Release Center, where I went as a cook in 1975.”

After being faced with leaving their beloved nanny behind, fully believing in her innocence, Jimmy formally requested to be assigned as her parole officer after Rosalynn petitioned for her release. The parole board agreed which allowed Prince to move to D.C. to continue working, this time at the White House. Once the Carters' finished their time in D.C., the family resettled back in their hometown in Plains, Georgia and Prince moved just a few blocks away continuing to care for the Carters children and grandchildren.

This story of fierce advocacy and kindness is making the rounds on social media with people in awe of the kind of people the Carters were.

@dannyfcollins♬ original sound - Danny Collins

One person shares, "The Carters are EASILY the best humans that’ve ever held those positions. What a dreadful birthday “present”, absolutely crushing, even after such an amazing life."

"Jimmy Carter was a real one, he was one of the only Christians I've ever seen walk the walk," another says.

"The more I find out about him the more I love him," someone else writes.

Prince was eventually exonerated of her charges when the case was reviewed and remained close with the Carters for the remainder of their lives.

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Family

Ring doorbell video captures the phenomenon of what it's like to be the default parent

Millions of us know what it's like to be the "default parent."

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If you don't know what the "default parent" it is, it probably isn't you.

Kids, man. I'm not sure of the scientific way audacity is distributed, but kids have a lot of it and somehow manage to make it cute. That audacity overload is especially interesting when you're the default parent—you know, the parent kids go to for literally everything as if there's not another fully capable adult in the house. Chances are if your children haven't sought you out while you were taking a shower so you could open up a pack of fruit snacks, then you're not the default parental unit.

One parent captured exactly what it's like to be the default parent and shared it to TikTok, where the video has over 4 million views. Toniann Marchese went on a quick grocery run and *gasp* did not inform her children. Don't fret though, they're modern kids who know how to use modern means to get much-needed answers when mom is nowhere to be found. They went outside and rang the doorbell.

Back when we were children, this would've done nothing but make the dogs bark, but for Marchese's kids, who are 3 and 6 years old, it's as good as a phone call.

You may be questioning why this mom left her two young children home alone. She didn't. Their father was home, likely wondering why the children were playing so quietly. But. He. Was. Right. There. And the kids still bypassed him to talk to their mom through the Ring doorbell camera. It was pressing business, after all.

"My tablet is dead," the 3-year-old said.

The kids ignored Marchese's questions about where their dad was and continued to complain about their tablets. The entire situation is enough to make any default parent chuckle and maybe sob a little.

Watch the urgent doorbell call below:

@tinyann22

Moms can never get a minute of peace lol #momsoftiktok #momlife #ring #camera #kidsoftiktok

And if you're skeptical that dad was within shouting distance, the mom of two uploaded a part two where dad comes into the frame.

@tinyann22

Replying to @iustmerlp part 2… daddy was found! Lol #kidsoftiktok #momsoftiktok #parentsoftiktok #fyp #ring #prioritiesfirst

While we got a cute couple of videos out of it, being the default parent is a very real syndrome and can be exhausting. To help you handle (and eventually break out) of the role, Psychology Today offers some insight and solutions that will help you feel less alone.

This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Internet

Woman explains what dry cleaning actually is and people are legitimately shocked

“They really take the buttons off of every shirt?”

Melissa Pateras TikTok screenshots

Melissa Pateras explains how dry cleaning works.

Have you ever wondered what happens at the dry cleaners? Or are you like me and just assumed the people at the dry cleaners were wizards and never questioned their magic? Turns out, dry cleaners aren't magic and there's actually a pretty interesting explanation of how they came to be and what they do.

Melissa Pateras is known on Tiktok for her laundry knowledge. If she pops up on your For You Page, you're officially on Laundrytok. Seriously, her ability to fold laundry is hypnotizing. This time, she created a video explaining what actually takes place at the dry cleaner and the Internet is aghast.

Before Pateras explained what happens in the mysterious world behind the counter of a dry cleaner, she asked a few of her friends what they thought dry cleaning was. Their answers were...interesting to say the least.

One friend surmised, "You put it in a box, right...and then you let some wind, really fast wind, blow around on your clothes and it wipes off all the dirt." The friend, whose username is @unlearn16, continued with her working hypothesis, saying that the clothes are then blasted with infrared heat to sterilize the garments. While that is certainly an interesting theory, that's not what happens.

Another friend guessed, "Dry cleaning is when they take all of your dirty clothes into this big dryer with a clean sheet that sticks all of the dirt to it from your dirty clothes." This friend was also incorrect, and Pateras finally explained why after her friends dug deep into their brains for their best guesses.

Turns out dry cleaning was invented by accident when Jean-Baptiste Jolly spilled a kerosene lamp on his tablecloth, which dried cleaner than it was previously, according to Pateras.

The laundry guru explained that while it was dangerous, the practice of cleaning things with kerosene continued until a less flammable method was discovered. But even the safer method is still fairly harsh, which is why dry cleaners take buttons off of clothing before running them through, she says.

This prompted one commenter to ask, "They really take the buttons off of every shirt?" to which Pateras replied that it only occurs if the buttons won't withstand the chemicals.

If you've ever been curious about what happens at the dry cleaner, watch the video below. She takes you through each step.

@melissadilkespateras

What is dry cleaning #laundry #laundrytok #drycleaning #funfacts @Tracy Taylor @Unlearn16 @Ana Pac @Ashley Mathieu @Li

Of course, some garments will do just fine without dry cleaning; knowing when to consider it is key.

This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Education

Her mom was helping pay off her student loans. When she passed away, the debt had doubled.

This is why we need student loan reform.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
person holding brown leather bifold wallet

College is expensive. Parents work multiple jobs, put pressure on their children to perform at the top of their class in order to earn merit scholarships, all in the hopes for college to be mostly paid in full. Inevitably many students and parents have to take out student loans in an effort to fill in the gaps left by financial aid.

In the case of one Twitter user, Michelle Miller, her mother agreed to pay back half of Michelle’s student loans to ease the burden on the new graduate. After graduation the daughter owed approximately $30,000 and, split between the two of them, it meant they would each need to pay back $15,000.

Michelle lamented on Twitter about how her mother insisted on paying back her agreed-upon portion of the student loans though the daughter offered to take over payments. When Michelle’s mother informed her that the original $15,000 turned into $40,000 after interest, Michelle decided to save money in preparation to take over payments. However, her mother refused to allow it. Miller’s mother was expected to pay $400 a month on the student loans, but this would cut into her retirement, leaving her below the poverty level. To her mother, it was worth it to hold up her end of the bargain. Unfortunately her mother became unexpectedly ill and passed away before she was able to retire or pay back the loans. When going through her mother’s paperwork after her death, Michelle was met with a shock.


The loan amount had doubled. Michelle’s mother hid that the interest rate on the loans had brought the grand total to $80k that she could never afford to pay back. But this story is not unique. Many borrowers go into debt thinking the benefit of the degree will outweigh the burden of student loan debt but the cost of an education continues to skyrocket and the interest rate on loans makes paying it back nearly impossible. When you go to school and take out loans, you expect to be able to afford monthly payments and hope to pay it back in a timely manner, eventually freeing up income, but that’s not always the case. A lot of people find themselves in a similar situation as Michelle’s mother. They take out a dollar amount that is repayable, only to look up and see they’ve repaid the original balance but they still owe more than they originally agreed to borrow.

man wearing white top using MacBookPhoto by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

If stories like Michelle’s are the norm, why aren’t we doing more to regulate student loan companies? Presidential candidates like to talk about student loan forgiveness, and some have come up with actionable plans, but it doesn’t solve the long term issue of student loan practices. The truth of the matter is that children who three months prior had to ask permission to use the bathroom are now expected to understand the long term implications of borrowing money from a company that doesn’t care that the average person can’t pay it back plus interest.

Seventeen- and 18-year olds with a dream of attending college and questionable loan practices is a perfect storm for continued crisis in the student loan arena. Until we can figure out how to better regulate the lending companies in charge of student loans, the next generation will repeat the cycle. People shouldn’t have to choose between pursuing their dreams and taking debt to the grave.


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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