Laura Steins and her son Christian, 8, attend a Boy Scout picnic. Despite her relative affluence, Steins's lifestyle was built on the premise of two incomes, not the single paycheck of a divorced mother of three in a recession.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Laura Steins, 47, playfully wrestles with her son Harrison, 12, and daughter Katie, 10, as the family leaves Christian's taekwondo competition. Since the recession hit, Steins worries about how sudden financial insecurity affects her children.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins, a corporate vice president, earns a base pay of $150,000 a year, plus a bonus. This year her overall income has taken a 10 percent hit.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Homes line the waterfront in Rye, N.Y., along the Long Island Sound. Steins lives in nearby Harrison, less than an hour's train ride away from New York's financial kingdom.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins makes sure her son Christian, left, eats the rest of his dinner, while Harrison finishes his.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Laura Steins speaks with a colleague at the office.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Kathy Shellogg, the nanny, serves Katie Steins her eggs in the breakfast nook. Each morning, Shellogg makes individual breakfasts for the Steins children. She lost her job and her house when the cement plant where she worked shut down in 1994.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins visits with friend Nicci Cleasby as the Steins's Rhodesian Ridgeback, Tyson, stretches out on the oriental rug in the main living room.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
When Steins bought out her husband's share of the house after their 2006 divorce, she assumed the costs of operating a 4,000 square-foot home on three acres -- between $8,000 and $9,000 a month.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins takes a moment to check wall colors, as she is having small portions of the home repainted. She has decided to stay in the house: "A, I couldn't sell the house right now," she says, citing the slow real estate market. "B, this is where my kids go to school. And C, it's where my job is."
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins talks with other mothers, including Marty Bradt, right, at a Boy Scout picnic. "We all might live in nice houses and drive nice cars, but we're just holding on," Steins says.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins, right, applauds her daughter Katie for her performance in the Harrison Avenue School fifth-grade play, "Let Freedom Ring", while Katie's father, Ed Steins, and his new wife, Carrie, congratulate her.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins watches her son's taekwondo testing session. In scaling back on her spending, she did not cut her children's various lessons and activities.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins uses sticky notes as reminders of the ever-changing schedule that her children have for school and personal activities.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Laura Steins tries to mediate a fight between Katie and her older brother, Harrison.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
After Katie's school play, Laura Steins takes the kids out for celebratory ice cream. Other children from the play also arrive at the shop. From right, Christian, Laura, Harrison and Katie, surrounded by friends.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins has a heated discussion with her son Harrison at home.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Steins and the children's nanny, Kathy Shellogg, 55, wait in the orthodontist office for Harrison, who is getting his braces removed. Often, Shellogg takes the children to their appointments and meets Steins there. Shellogg has no health or dental insurance of her own.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Laura Steins, her children and their dad, Ed Steins, look at photographs that Harrison took of Christian during his taekwondo competition.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
On the weekend, Steins responds to e-mails from colleagues at a window seat in her home. "I can ride this storm out," Steins says.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Gallery Credits:
Producers, Photo Editors Dee Swann, Stephen Cook
Text Editor Heather Farrell, Liz Heron
Reporter Anne Hull
