I wish my family was poor growing up. I know this might come off as entitled, but I wish my parents didn’t have money so it could explain the way I was treated as a kid. I grew up in an upper-middle class area with parents who always had money, but I always got the bare minimum. When the Xbox 360 came out, I got the Xbox, but they would never buy me batteries, games, Xbox Live, or anything to actually play the console. I just had the console. I had to play a demo disk or buy the dollar battery pack that would run out in day. For the new School year I would get one pair of pants that were a good brand and a few shirts that were also good brands, but that was it for the rest of the year so they could say they bought me good brand clothes. I had to wear that single pair of pants the whole year, and people would question me about it. I would say I had multiple pairs that looked the same, but people would point out, “Oh, I saw that stain on your pants yesterday.” which was always really embarrassing I never had spending money. I would get maybe $10 a month, if that. While all my friends were going out and buying food, I would just get anxiety if anyone bought me anything, like they were going to use it against me later and talk trash about me using their money. I wish I grew up poor so it could explain why I didn’t have anything. There’s that saying low income people have: “I was poor, but it never felt like it.” My parents had money, but it was never for me. I was always well aware that the money wasn’t for me. I grew up with some money when they felt like it but 99.99% I didn’t have anything and they always made me feel horrible for asking for anything.
Low income families always seemed so generous, the food was for everyone, they had clothes hand me down/thrifted but clothes and the parents always seemed to try their best. i was always so envious.
I just wanted to make an edit and emphasize. When I mean, it was their money. It was THEIR money I had no food for me half the time. 90% of my meals came from School. I would take home school breakfast burritos from the area kids would leave the unopened food they didn’t want to get me through the weekend. By the end of the school year, I would literally only be wearing school event shirts. I was a walking school promo because everything else wore out. my parents had money. I DID NOT.