Poll of the Day > Did you grow up in a wealthy family?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Were your parents usually struggling or did they have plenty of money?

I didn't realise how much my parents sacrificed until I was a teenager. We did have everything we needed, always had food, but I remember my school giving us new clothes one year because another parent mentioned that our clothes were too small.

Typical non-struggling, non-free spending middle class family.
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We were completely broke, and struggling. Often had to go hungry, or just have toast because all they could afford was a loaf of bread. Luckily the school offered free lunches to the poorer families, so it's not like we were in danger of starving during the school year or anything, and my dad's work picked up in the summer, so it was less of an issue then.
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Heck no
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we wuz the second moniest in my village, had pizza pops and everything, aww yeah.
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We were solid middle class, I got at least one game console of each generation and all
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Yeah.
Both my parents were new money and earned it all themselves though.
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We were pretty poor, but I never realized till I got older. I had to move all the stuff from the fridge to a cooler filled with ice multiple times because our electricity got shut off because they didnt pay the bill.

I remember in elementary school bragging about how I got free lunch. I thought I got it because I was awesome. Never realized it was because I was poor.

It never really affected me in that negative of a way. And I always knew other people had it much worse than I did.

I know it was hard on my parents though.

MICHALECOLE posted...

We were pretty poor, but I never realized till I got older.

Same here.

We lived in a mobile home. I never realized that mobile homes are what poor people live in until I was older.

My mom was a nurse, but my dad could not keep a stable job. He always stressed to me how important school is for getting a good job because he never went to college. I never really understood him until I was older.

My parents bought my brother and I tons of toys and video games and stuff. We had an Atari 2600, a NES, and a SNES, and tons and tons of games. Every Christmas there was a mountain of presents under the tree.

As a child, money is just green paper. Children have no comprehension of the value of money. I didn't understand just how much money my parents spent on toys and video games and such until I was much older. Now I feel kind of bad because it was money that they really didn't have and should have used on other things.

Nope
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rogerskg1979 posted...

As a child, money is just green paper. Children have no comprehension of the value of money.

Children only don't know what they aren't taught.
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Not poor. My parents had the means to have anything they'd want but instead chose to invest for the future. My father worked himself to the bone and was well compensated for his efforts. My mum stayed at home to raise us and keep the household together.

Even with restricting decisions in place, we wanted for nothing and that's probably because we were raised to want only the simplest of things.

That being said, we have a good easy going lifestyle. We went to private schools, summer holidays were busy with extra curricular activities...Looking back at it now, we had plenty of disposable income but my mum would never spend anything unnecessarily. We all had brand new cars when we went to the university (courtesy of my dad! he loved cars! XD). We also had two housemaids around the time I was a teenager.

I'd say we are upper-middle class.
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Middle Class.

Grateful for my older bro buying me video games and accessories as a teen.
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Not to the point where we didn't have food at some point, but I certainly wasn't getting the most amazing stuff. Most of my clothes were from garage sales and I don't think I ever got a pair of shoes that cost more then $20 until I was in college.
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I grew up well below the poverty line.
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No, not really poor tho. My dad used to be a Truck Driver, and my mom stayed at home. We lived in a nice-sized double-wide in a trailer park and had stolen cable(it was already there from the previous owner, my dad just used it for years until the cable company finally fixed it, then we got Dish), but we never went hungry. We hardly ever went out to eat tho, just ate at home. And I always had video games to play, even if they were usually used and/or a year or two old by the time I got them

So not rich at all, not poor, a little below Middle class I'd say.
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Oh God, no.

We were never truly poor; we always had a roof over our heads. But not much more than the basic necessities. Didn't have the latest toys, games or anything else. Lots of hand me downs and we often relied on food or clothing pantries.

We got a lot of mileage out of our SNES, NES and Atari long after they were all obsolete. Not many games so we played the heck out of every one and appreciated them all. Now that I'm doing better for myself it feels weird to me that I have so many games that I haven't even touched many of them, and I feel a little guilty like I'm being wasteful.
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When I was a toddler, we were really poor. Bread slices with mustard wasn't uncommon for lunch. A KFC meal was what I considered luxury. Had to walk everywhere because we couldn't afford a car or even a bus card. Later on we were...okay. Could pay rent fine, had 3 meals a day, and after a few years of saving we were able to get an NES near the end of the generation though!

SunWuKung420 posted...

Typical non-struggling, non-free spending middle class family.

This. Small suburban ranch house, single car garage, single car, window air conditioner (what a novelty!) purchased when I was 12 or so, black and white television when I was eight. I bought a $500 car when I was 16, worked after school and weekends at a grocery store to maintain it.
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dancer62 posted...

SunWuKung420 posted...

Typical non-struggling, non-free spending middle class family.

This. Small suburban ranch house, single car garage, single car, window air conditioner (what a novelty!) purchased when I was 12 or so, black and white television when I was eight. I bought a $500 car when I was 16, worked after school and weekends at a grocery store to maintain it.

Sounds like you're working class.

Why do you 'muricans think middle class is everything between the 1% extremes?
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SunWuKung420 posted...

rogerskg1979 posted...

As a child, money is just green paper. Children have no comprehension of the value of money.

Children only don't know what they aren't taught.

There are plenty of things that are well beyond the comprehension of children. You cannot truly value the importance of money until you are working and supporting yourself. Even when I was a teenager with a part time job, I didn't truly value money. I spent my money on stupid shit. It wasn't until I was supporting myself, paying my own bills and rent and such, that I truly came to value money and not waste it on stupid shit.

Well... no and yes. My parents came from poor backgrounds and, for at least the early years, they were definitely on the lower side of the earning scale. However, they progressively made more money as their careers continued (more so my dad) and by the time I was in middle school they (again, mostly my dad) had amassed a good deal of money. But that's pretty much how things work when you really apply yourself.

SirPikachu posted...

No, not really poor tho. My dad used to be a Truck Driver, and my mom stayed at home. We lived in a nice-sized double-wide in a trailer park and had stolen cable(it was already there from the previous owner, my dad just used it for years until the cable company finally fixed it, then we got Dish), but we never went hungry. We hardly ever went out to eat tho, just ate at home. And I always had video games to play, even if they were usually used and/or a year or two old by the time I got them

So not rich at all, not poor, a little below Middle class I'd say.

That kinda sounds poor.
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rogerskg1979 posted...

SunWuKung420 posted...

rogerskg1979 posted...

As a child, money is just green paper. Children have no comprehension of the value of money.

Children only don't know what they aren't taught.

There are plenty of things that are well beyond the comprehension of children. You cannot truly value the importance of money until you are working and supporting yourself.

Not true at all. Despite growing up in a family that could have afforded to buy me a SNES, my parents opted to teach me about money, and I saved (the few bucks I'd get a week, birthday/Christmas money, almost a year to save $100) until I could buy it myself. So yes, money isn't beyond the comprehension of a child. Children are actually better learners than adults.
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My parents divorced when I was very young. My dad was a controlling asshole who was spotty at best paying child support, my mom was a high school drop out and a total moron. We lived with her in public housing on government assistance, hand-me-down and church give away clothes, ramen noodles at least two nights a week and the few presents under our Christmas tree were donated. I was bullied pretty hard from elementary school until high school
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rogerskg1979 posted...

SunWuKung420 posted...

rogerskg1979 posted...

As a child, money is just green paper. Children have no comprehension of the value of money.

Children only don't know what they aren't taught.

There are plenty of things that are well beyond the comprehension of children. You cannot truly value the importance of money until you are working and supporting yourself. Even when I was a teenager with a part time job, I didn't truly value money. I spent my money on stupid shit. It wasn't until I was supporting myself, paying my own bills and rent and such, that I truly came to value money and not waste it on stupid shit.

Sounds like you didn't learn and were not taught the value of money. Even as a child I comprehended the value of money, in fact if anything, I was overanxious about money as everybody pretended they couldn't afford shit when really they were wasting their money on extravagances.
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yes
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

dancer62 posted...

SunWuKung420 posted...

Typical non-struggling, non-free spending middle class family.

This. Small suburban ranch house, single car garage, single car, window air conditioner (what a novelty!) purchased when I was 12 or so, black and white television when I was eight. I bought a $500 car when I was 16, worked after school and weekends at a grocery store to maintain it.

Sounds like you're working class.

Why do you 'muricans think middle class is everything between the 1% extremes?

In the 1950s that WAS pretty much middle class.
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When I was born our home had two bedrooms and one bathroom, we were lower middle class at best. My mom had several promotions and eventually became chief inspector of the postal inspection service for most of the entire rust belt, so eventually we became upper middle class by my late teens.

Then I moved out, and lived in almost squalor, with nothing but an air mattress, a foreman grill, a tv, and a used GameCube. Barely making 50 dollars a day. Now I make 50k a year and live with my gf who does the same. So I've done the whole spectrum of middle class, but never have I considered myself or my family wealthy. I work in wealth management for a bank, and if my parents had that kinda money, I haven't seen it.
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It's all relative. We lived in a house with three floors and central air, and my mom didn't have to work, which was a step up from many other middle-class families. We didn't live a luxurious lifestyle, but always had everything we needed if we needed it. As I got older, and my dad was promoted, we had more and ascended to upper-middle. My dad has always had to work hard and fight for everything he got, but the end result was a five-figure/month income at the end of it. I'm proud of him.
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I'd say middle class when I was a little kid, but by middle and high school my dad was making six figures
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Dakooder posted...

Did you grow up in a wealthy family?

Not even close.
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dancer62 posted...

Kyuubi4269 posted...

dancer62 posted...

SunWuKung420 posted...

Typical non-struggling, non-free spending middle class family.

This. Small suburban ranch house, single car garage, single car, window air conditioner (what a novelty!) purchased when I was 12 or so, black and white television when I was eight. I bought a $500 car when I was 16, worked after school and weekends at a grocery store to maintain it.

Sounds like you're working class.

Why do you 'muricans think middle class is everything between the 1% extremes?

In the 1950s that WAS pretty much middle class.

Sorry, I forget you're older than my parents.
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Id say middle but i dont actually know what rates what so eh. Dont know the exact income but know it was still a ways from 6 figures so am doubtful about being all that higher than middle.

At any rate dad died when i was 6 so was just my adoptive mom but for the most part it still seemed we had better than a lot of people i went to school with. Never came close to being hungry, often had takeout, AC and appliances were instantly replaced when needed, stuff like gaming was fine, so on so forth.
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SunWuKung420 posted...

Typical non-struggling, non-free spending middle class family.

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Sometimes struggling, other making ends meet. A lot of my relatives are wealthy.
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Middle class normal

No.
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who the hell would say yes here? I highly doubt any of us here live in a giant mansion and live the rich life
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NightMareBunny posted...

who the hell would say yes here? I highly doubt any of us here live in a giant mansion and live the rich life

I believe there was a guy here whose dad was some big cahooney or something and his mom get's like a 100,000 dollars a month in alimony or something.
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Paycheck-to-paycheck, but we still had considerably more than most kids I went to school with.
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NightMareBunny posted...

who the hell would say yes here? I highly doubt any of us here live in a giant mansion and live the rich life

...it says "wealthy," not "rich." There's a slightly different connotation. Kind of like a 2%er vs a 1%er (or a 0.1%er, since a 1% is something like $450k/year whereas others in the 1% pull in over $10m/year). Granted, many Americans would set the standard for wealth at lower than the $250k/year associated with the top 2% >_>
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Zeus posted...

...it says "wealthy," not "rich." There's a slightly different connotation. Kind of like a 2%er vs a 1%er (or a 0.1%er, since a 1% is something like $450k/year whereas others in the 1% pull in over $10m/year)

There is no difference since they're synonyms.
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Revelation34 posted...

Zeus posted...

...it says "wealthy," not "rich." There's a slightly different connotation. Kind of like a 2%er vs a 1%er (or a 0.1%er, since a 1% is something like $450k/year whereas others in the 1% pull in over $10m/year)

There is no difference since they're synonyms.

Hence "connotations." In the colloquial use, they're not used interchangeably which is why you hear people talking about wanting to rich rather than wanting to be wealthy. People tend to think of doctors and lawyers as wealthy, whereas they think of Hollywood stars as rich.
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I'd say we went from lower middle class to comfortably middle class
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