Savannah Chrisley, 25, has taken custody of her 16-year-old brother, Grayson, and 10-year-old niece, Chloe, following the imprisonment of both of her parents for bank fraud and tax evasion. Chrisley has stated that she did not feel “adequate enough for this job”.
“I am not my mother, which I wish I was,” she went on, in her podcast, “Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley”. “Because she is the kindest, most loving, most amazing human being I’ve ever met. I always said if I could be half of her I would be okay. I guess in moments like these I realize I’m more like my mom than I realize because I’m getting through it. I find the strength to get through it and do it.”
Chrisley opened up about the adjustment struggles each member of her family has been facing. Her father—who she can only communicate with via text or email—has outlined a number of “crappy days” in the last two weeks. Her mother, Chrisley reports, is making friends and attending church services.
For the Chrisley children, the transition has been extremely difficult.
“Grayson is 16 years old, [and] there’s so much growth going on with him right now. And it breaks my heart to know that my parents are missing out on that,” she said. “Last night, Gray had a breakdown, and he’s trying to process my parents and the situation that they’re in and how that’s not the image that he wants to have of them.”
“Chloe at 10 years old is trying to process them being gone and missing her mom,” she explained. “We were driving down the road the other day, and Chloe had so much anger towards the situation and she just said, ‘Why? They’re not bad people, they don’t belong there.’ She looked at me with tears just rolling down her face and said, ‘Guess what? I pray all the time. I pray for mom and dad to get home, I pray all day and guess what Sassy? Nothing happens – it doesn’t work.’ And when a 10-year-old says that to you, how do you respond?”
This experience, though challenging, has given Chrisley a greater perspective on her life and purpose. “My mission is going to be to bring awareness to how broken our prison system is, how we have a system that does not encourage rehabilitation. It does not encourage growth, it doesn’t encourage forgiveness, it just encourages, really, beating someone down further than they already are, and that’s really, really sad.”
Sources:
usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/todd-chrisley-gives-savannah-parenting-advice-from-prison/
https://news.yahoo.com/savannah-chrisley-says-she-struggling-123853150.html
