5/16/2023 0 Comments Growing up poorWalking five miles round-trip to buy dollar-store groceries on your food stamps because your mom can’t afford a car or the bus. Putting on a cheerful face and acting super chipper for your younger siblings as you pack your bags to stay at a roach-infested motel because no electricity will get you all taken away by CPS. “Trying to cook and serve dinner loud enough to cover up the sound of your mom crying in her bedroom because she can’t afford to pay the electricity this month. Trying to cook and serve dinner loud enough to cover up the sound of your mom crying in her bedroom because she can’t afford to pay the electricity this month. Only getting new toys on your birthday or Xmas, usually from another family member such as uncle or grand parent.49 cent hamburger day (which turns to days) at McDonald’s.”ĩ. “That when you turn 16 you don’t get a car, you just get to be 16.”Ĩ. When you turn 16 you don’t get a car, you just get to be 16. “Adding water to an empty shampoo bottle to get more shampoo.”ħ. Adding water to an empty shampoo bottle to get more shampoo. We were poor together and we partied together in squats with out of date cider.”Ħ. Being poor can also give you respect for the value of money, and stops you wasting it.Īlso, when I was poor I was somehow closer to the people who I lived around. On a more positive note, how once you get some money you have an iron determination to never be poor again, which can make you work harder and better than the rich kids. But it’s not that easy, having no money is insidious and it affects your whole outlook and personality. People who have always been rich have never felt that, so they assume that being poor is just the same as being rich without having money, and that if they were ever poor they would just work their way out of it while remaining chipper. How eating shit food and living in a shit place makes you feel like shit and how hard it can be to break out of that. “How being poor drains you of motivation and self-respect, and makes opportunities harder to take. “Pretending you’re not even hungry and that’s why you’re not eating lunch.”ĥ. While other kids might’ve just complained and bitched about frivolous shit, seeing my mother go through that really left me feeling upset and helpless.” Times like that made me grow up way too fast. Thinking about this now makes me upset still, but when I was a kid it was a fact of life that I was too young to embrace the burden off. “Rich kids can never understand the pain, humiliation, helplessness, and sadness of seeing your mom walk in the door with a box of food that you know she had to beg the food bank to let her have. Seeing your mom walk in the door with a box of food that you know she had to beg the food bank to let her have. “Going to Grandma’s house ‘just because,’ and realizing that it’s because there’s no food at your house and grandma wants to make sure you’ve eaten dinner.”Ģ. Going to Grandma’s house because there’s nothing to eat at your house.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |