The young couple, however, have come to regret their decision, even as they concede they had no other choice.

“I liked her family when we weren’t here,” said Mr. Wilson, who has struggled to mesh his more reserved personality with the garrulousness of Ms. Maggi’s family. “Now that we’re here, I don’t like them. I feel bad about it. I don’t think it’s their problem, or something that can be helped. It is what it is.”

The stresses can be as trifling as having to worry when getting up at night to use the toilet, which Mr. Wilson said he fretted about all the time because the elder Maggis’ bedroom is next to the bathroom. Or they can be more serious, like how Mr. Wilson and Ms. Maggi feel their parental decisions are being constantly undermined by her parents.

Several months ago, Holly Maggi finally landed a part-time job, paying minimum wage, as a cashier at Harvest Food & Outreach Center here, which offers discounted groceries, classes and other services to the needy. (The center’s client base has grown tenfold this year in St. Lucie County, where the unemployment rate was 15.2 percent in November.)

With Ms. Maggi at work, Mr. Wilson, 26, has been left to fend for himself at home with their daughter and Ms. Maggi’s parents. Over time, Kathy Maggi’s regular chirping about how to deal with Madison and her sometimes-differing approach  she prefers, for example, not to let her granddaughter cry, even though Mr. Wilson and Holly Maggi sometimes think she needs to  has rankled Mr. Wilson. “I don’t think she feels Madison is safe when she’s with me,” he said.

After Holly comes home from work, the couple spend most of their time in their bedroom, with Madison dashing in and out. Most of their possessions, including a 75-gallon fish tank with two giant South American cichlids and a South American catfish, occupy a second bedroom. Even though three-quarters of the space in their room is taken up by a king-size mattress, it has become their refuge. “This is the only place we feel we have that’s really ours,” Holly Maggi said.

The family’s time together has not been without its joys. It has enabled Madison’s grandparents to witness her first steps and first words, her transformation from infant to toddler. But the financial burdens shadow everything.