Please Help!! - Chicago,IL

Hi everyone. I am a single mom with a 2 1/2 year old daughter. After a TERRIBLE divorce, I was forced to move back into my parents house. After a long search, I finally found a good job. (Thank God!!) I am looking for an inexpensive one bedroom apartment on the Northwest side of Chicago. ( I live now at Addison and Austin area- (Dunning Square Area) area code 60634). I need to stay close to this area due to the fact that my daughter is in day care in this area and I can't afford a car!! I need to find an apartment in this same area that is around $500 (garden apartment ok as long as it is clean and safe).

I can't tell you how difficult this past year has been living with my parents whom are VERY set in their ways and are constantly arguing with eachother and myself INFRONT of my daughter. They threaten eachother that they want a divorce at least once a week and then they don't talk to eachother for days. Then, of course, they turn to me to vent their anger on!!! Their house is very small w/ only 2 bedrooms and one bathroom and NO privacy at all. We live all on the same floor. I am not "allowed" to have any friends over because my mother (whom I truly believe has some serious issues mentally) says that the house is too cluttered, yet when I offer to help clean something, she doesn't want anything moved or changed around !!! I am constantly being told what to do, and constantly arguing with my parents about how to raise my child !!!! If I am lucky I am only able to go out with my friends about 1x at most because they tell me I should be home watching my daughter (even though she is asleep after 8pm). I can't take it much longer - I am about to crack !! We argue about everything from them telling me that the divorce was MY fault (even though my ex husband was ABUSIVE and my parents begged me to leave him!!!) to them telling me EXACTLY how to raise my daughter and them LITERALLY standing in the doorway and watching me when I attempt to discipline her verbally (not yelling at all). I am 35 years old and I KNOW that I am a good, responsible parent who is very well capable of raising this child on my own. My life has been so difficult, filled with constant arguing and little happiness within the past year!! It is to the point now where my parents refer to me in the 3rd person with my daughter when I am sitting right in front of them!!! They are older and very set in there ways, very judgemental and they put me down all the time!!! They are impossible to live with any longer. My friends and even NEIGHBORS have witnessed there behavior and have actually told me that I need to move out asap for my own sanity!!! I have tried several times to calmly voice my concerns (ie. them yelling and fighting with eachother in front of my daughter, us all not getting along etc) but I have had NO success. They just ignore me when I try to talk to them in an adult manner to try and remedy our very sad situation or they tell me that if I don't like it here - that I should leave and that I should be happy that I have a roof over my head!! I thought that when I got my job (which they told me NOT to get a job because my daughter was too young to be without her mother all day) that things would improve.........but it is a constant battle everyday with everything. They don't want her to go to daycare while I am working because they think she is too young and she is being "abused" which is ridiculous because I personally know my daycare provider and so do alot of my friends and she is wonderful and very caring and patient with all the kids. I tell them I have no choice but to send her to daycare if I am working all day. In the mornings when I am trying to get my daughter ready for daycare, my parents tell my daughter that "she doesn't have to go"......therefore my daughter wants to stay home and she kicks and screams when I try to get her dressed. Everyday when I go to work, I am so stressed out before get there, that I literally have to fight the tears back when someone asks me how I am doing.

It is a loose-loose situation for me everyday!! I am at my witts-end and I need to move out. I can't afford an expensive apartment until I find a 2nd job. I don't receive any child support at all and my ex husband is non-existent in our lives...when I got pregnant - he wanted me to get an abortion because he said he was under too much pressure with trying to find a job etc and that he couldn't handle having a baby!... and my ex husband actually maxed out several credit cards here and then moved to a different country!!! Thus, we have collectors calling everyday - which is "my fault" because I should of seen what kind of man I was marrying!! Unbelievable!! During my divorce, I cried everyday and was so depressed but I got through it and now I am being reminded of that terrible situation all the time!!!!!

I was wondering if anyone knows of any apartments that are clean and safe and nice in the $500 range in my area???????????

Please help. I feel so depressed all the time and I feel so all alone.
I just want to be able to raise my daughter on my own in a healthy, clean, calm environment. Please respond.
Thank you so much.