Mothers Strip To Make Ends Meet

CHICAGO - Your average mom these days has a lot on her mind. Kids need clothes, braces and a college fund. And there's only so much money clipping coupons will save. MyFoxChicago shows us where some desperate housewives have turned to make big bucks.

She's a single mother with two kids just trying to make ends meet. So to keep food on the table in the morning, she's dancing topless on a table at night.

"If you think I'm unfit because of that then that's your own problem," says one mother that works as a stripper. She's asked not to be identified because she says some members of her family either don't know, or don't approve of her current line of work.

"My older brother didn't speak to me for six months when he found out. My father doesn't know.  I love my dad and I wouldn't want him to think any differently of me," she explains.

She says she used to do clerical administrative work, but when her ex-boyfriend -- her high school sweetheart -- walked out on her and the kids, she says that her paycheck just wasn't enough.

"I'm telling you right now, with two kids, a $13.85 an hour job is not going to help you out with anything. I'm sorry. That might pay your rent and that might pay your gas to get back and forth to work, but it's not going to pay for groceries. It's not going to pay for anything they want. It's not going to pay for health insurance. Who wants to live like that?"

"I come [to the strip club], work 6, 7, 8 hour shifts and leave with more than $500," says another dancer.

Larissa, is also a single mom with a 3-year-old daughter, and asked to be identified only by her stage name "Larissa."

She was asked: What's the most money you've made from one guy in one night? "One night, one guy?" Larissa recounts. "Probably $2,400." Which included, "a couple of champagne rooms, couple of bottles of champagne, and a couple lap dances," she adds.

These dancing moms say it might seem like a sexy job, but they insist there is never any sexual activity.

"I wouldn't do something that I thought was going to endanger myself, or my children, or make me look bad," says the first mom.

Yet the question remains: Is this career in a thong, just plain wrong?

"There is a whole host of things out there that parents do that are much worse than dancing in a club," says Dr. Mitchell Glaser, a child adolescent psychiatrist.

"One person's morals is not another person's morals, so it just comes down, 'how is the child being taken care of?'" says Glaser.

"Single moms are more responsible, they're not going out partying after work," says Thomas Andricopoulos, the manager of PoleKatz Gentlemen's Club in suburban Chicago.

Andricopoulos says about half of the 100 or so young women who work there are mothers. He says dozens more are applying every week, especially recently, as the economy has soured.

"If this is what [the moms] have to do to make ends meet, as opposed to going on welfare, what's wrong with it?" says Andricopoulos.

Several managers at adult clubs throughout the Chicago area say that an increasing number of new dancers are recently laid off women with children. Of course, that doesn't mean all of them are ultimately cut out for this business.

"I've seen girls come, I've seen girls go. Some last one week, two weeks," says Larissa,

One day, when their children get older, these women say they know they might ask be asked what mommy does for a living.

"I'll tell them the truth. I'm not someone that wants to live in poverty. I'm a typical mom. That's just how it is," says one of the moms.