For those of you who didn’t grow up with money or privilege…..

[MarkD]

we laugh at ourselves in the uk.. we always undercut each other in a joking manner..

One person says they lived in a house with no roof... so the next says.' house.. ?.. you were lucky.. we lived in a hole in the road...

Hole in the road?..says the next one... you were lucky... we lived in a mouse hole in the skirting board...skirting board?..says another.. you were lucky... we lived in a rotten sandwich that a beggar had thrown away... and so it goes on...

When you can't laugh at yourself you know you are really bad off.

 

[hollydolly]

When you can't laugh at yourself you know you are really bad off.

I honestly thik that's how i survived , and not only survived but thrived.. because if I'd allowed it to keep me down .. I would still be struggling today... no better life for me or my children... ...

My daughter is very upper middle class.. she has never known deprivation for herself.. or witnessed it as any part of my life or past life... that's what I wanted to be able to provide, and I achieved that despite and maybe because of the deprivation and abusive first 18 years of my life

..and due to that she was given every opportunity in life that I could give her.. that meant satying on at school to get the best exams.. going onto college... ( which was all denied to me).. so that she could start her working life half way up a ladder.. and not scrabbbling around at the bottom , with little hope of advancement

 

[TeePee]

Your post reminds me that.. we never got any take away food at all ever... or taken to a restaurant... but on the odd occasion if I went shopping on my own with my mum, she would take us both into a cafe, and I could have a coke... ..and also once from memory we also had a picnic in the layby by the roadside... but only because we had my aunt and uncle with us....for a day out.... I still have the photos from that day taken by my aunt and uncle

We did take a trip once.. to the beach ... just for one day... but they brought fish paste sandwiches with us and tea in a flask

We both might not have grown up in a rich family, but we were rich in other ways. I have some good memories of childhood and some not so good. (I lost my parents early just like you) I'll never complain. There are so many out there before our time, during our time, and now that were and are struggling just to survive.

 

[hollydolly]

We both might not have grown up in a rich family, but we were rich in other ways. I have some good memories of childhood and some not so good. (I lost my parents early just like you) I'll never complain. There are so many out there before our time, during our time, and now that were and are struggling just to survive.

yes you were a little different to me... you have good memories of childhood, I don't.

I had a very abusive childhood.. so poverty and abuse doesn't make for good memories. What it does however in some people..like me.. is make me abe to endure much more in life .. and not fold.. that may break other people

It instilled a deep personal ehtos in me for improvement.. and never to to allow anyone to go through any similar situation

 

[TeePee]

yes you were a little different to me... you have good memories of childhood, I don't.

I had a very abusive childhood.. so poverty and abuse doesn't make for good memories. What it does however in some people..like me.. is make me abe to endure much more in life .. and not fold.. that may break other people

It instilled a deep personal ehtos in me for improvement.. and never to to allow anyone to go through any similar situation

I hate that you had an unhappy childhood. My father was an alcoholic (I didn't know what one was as a child, but as an adult I know he was when I think back on it.) He passed away when I was 9 yrs old. After dad died, I got a lot of whippings with belts and switches. I'm sure I deserved some of it but thinking back on it, it seems kind of harsh compared to nowadays. I had a couple of relatives that tried to sexually abuse me but never got by with it, thank goodness. Those were some of the bad memories. The good memories are mainly of my mother who died when I was 20 yrs old. I always felt loved by her.

 

[outlander]

According to my parents, when I was young we were financially challenged. But I always had enough to eat, clean clothes, a real shower and bathroom, a modest Christmas, and we would eat out occasionally.

Seemed fine to me