Were you poor when growing up?
Did you ever face poverty of some sort
What do you think abt this subject?? In wealth or support or community
Iâve always been poor, with the exception being about 3 years when I was getting financial aid for my Bachelorâs and Masterâs degree.
I grew up with like little dental care and few visits to the doctor (check ups, pfft, only emergency rooms, because check-ups were like a luxury). I once leaned against a newly parked motorcycle and received burns that we couldnât afford to treat. My mom was a single mom whose jobs were unstable because of the economy of Reaganomics.
We didnât have a car growing up, so we took the bus. We lived in a high crime apartment in a high crime neighborhood in a high crime city where there were few job opportunities.
I wonât get into politics, but as a poor sz with limited job opportunities, I donât find being doomed to poverty as being fair or in line with our US Constitution.
4 Likes
I was poor growing up. I remember eating white bread with syrup on it as a sandwich. Our power would get shut off because we couldnât pay the bill.
1 Like
yeah everybody had/has a challenge of some sort I guess.
Some people have most of what they need and still so ungrateful.
If you have had family while growing up, it is good. I am sorry you went through that.
2 Likes
We were poor growing up, not starving but no car and we never had a lot of fancy stuff, never really thought much about it as a kid, we had food and roof over our heads and always seem to keep busy as a kid playing with whatever was around.
I do remember my parents fighting and feeling insecure about no car, we eventually got a 55 chev off a neighbor, parents felt bad about driving around in it, but as kids we never thought much about it.
3 Likes
Yes, my mother was (and still is) my main support system. Poverty bonded us in a way, like weâre all on our own, us against the world.
My mother did the best she could and she would spend money she didnât have to buy me books from the store so I could read and learn. She now has terrible credit from those days when she used credit to make ends meet. She made sacrifices I canât imagine. 
3 Likes
are you from US? Here where I am right now, power gets cut off bc the government has a lot of âsupposedlyâ debt. So people pay for electricity from an outside source along with the 6 hour electricity bill of everyday. Tap water is not good, they buy galloons of water and take it up the stairs to 6th floor so they can drink.
It is only magnified. I could live here, but do not have to.
2 Likes
Yes i am from the US
I grew up in a very tough, working class neighborhood.
My family was never rich, but we never lived in total abject poverty either though. I guess we were what you would consider - âLower middle class.â
I remember growing up hearing about how some kids fathers recently went to jail, or were getting out soon.
The drugs and crime were very rampant in those times where I lived at in Cali. Those were scary times. And not much has changed, unfortunately.
I grew up in a good neighborhood in a nice home and never wanted for anything I needed. My parents were frugal, though, and I never kept up with my classmates when it came to toys, clothes, or other childhood accessories. Kids can make you feel it, but itâs not real deprivation.
2 Likes
I am sorry to hear that =(
Parents are strange. If I ever become a parent, I hope I can give my kids what my parents did not.
1 Like
To a point. I try to use what I have earned to create learning and growth opportunities for my kid. Trying to avoid handing her everything as Iâm sure thatâs crippling in its own right.
4 Likes
My parents always told us we were poor, but once I grew up and met actual poor people, I realized we were firmly in the middle class. We never went without food or power, and my parents were able to pay for my assorted medical expenses without drowning in debt. We even got to go on vacations sometimes, as long as we were camping. We were poor for the area we lived in, but we lived in a pretty rich area.
2 Likes
My parents are pretty affluent. I have never lacked anything I needed, but they still taught me to have respect for money, so I have never been broke. I would say we were upper middle class. We had a large house, so my friends were always impressed when they came over, but I never thought of it as big or of other peopleâs homes as small. They help me out financially, which has been a big help and has made recovery easier for me. My home did not have a lack of money, it had a lack of love.
1 Like
âMilitary poorâ as my parents called it, meaning we had a roof over our head, clothes on our back, food to eat,medical if something was broken (dental wasnât included- Iâve still never had my teeth âCleanedâ but I lived to tell about it), but there were no extras per se.
We were something that needed pity because we never got the brand name clothes or shoes, no car, no toys that needed batteries/electricity?
Nope.
Do I think it damaged me in any way, like gave me a mental illness?
Nope.
We had a lot of discipline and was expected to behave regardless of any situation.
I learned to work hard with no expectation of any pay/reward, and with a good attitude as well.
Am I damaged by it all?
Nope.
I think it was the best âtrainingâ I could have ever gotten to prepare me for life.
I can fix a lot of things when they break, or know enough when to leave it to the professionals.
I can stretch a dollar in cooking, I can repair my own clothes, I shop 2nd hand stores and recycle my own bottles and cans, because I want to, not because I have to.
There is a wise saying that I like to follow:
âUse it up, wear it out
Make it do, or do without.â
I keep my life simple, and live within my means, and I wouldnât have it any other way.
I think itâs a good way to live.
4 Likes
I grew up in the middle class for the most part. When my dad went to jail my mom and I struggled for a few years. We rented a room at a familyâs house. We were fairly poor. Then I got a job and we moved to an apartment. It was nice to have desperate beds for a change. My dad got out of jail and we did ok. My mom moved in with my sister and her husband. My dad and I renât an apartment. Weâre not as poor as when he was in jail. Weâre comfortable for the most part. Iâd say weâre lower middle class. Iâm thankful for my life.
2 Likes
I was a child of divorce, so I was never well off. My dad was a lawyer and my mom had a teaching degree that she never used. She focused on âmeeting a husbandâ instead of her career. Divorce is hard on a family.
ETA: I was in gifted and rode in my friendâs dadâs private plane, and we lived in a nicer neigborhood then, so I had my momentâs. Wait, I also had a horse, but when I lived with my mom we were poor.
1 Like
We were lower middle class but we always lived in nice surroundings, always had plenty to eat and we had a good car. Once I moved out of the home and lived on my own I have always lived under the poverty line. But nevertheless I have traveled a little, done tons fun things and I have had a cars since 1996 and Iâve had many luxuries.
1 Like
military bratâŚ
2 Likes
I also born poor, but by good luck my father find a good job when he came to town from village. Then during my education he suddenly died. There for my family again came in struggle. After my job and marriage we stabilised but not enough. Than after 16 years of my fatherâs death I find a good job. Now I am thinking poverty is a state of mind if govt provide us opportunity. I want my mind focus on earning and donât time pass with intrusive thoughts.
2 Likes