Poor as a kid?

I thought I had it shitty, but I was one of the lucky ones, I guess. I thought it was bad to grow up without a car after my uncle stole my mom's. But I guess I had it OK.

Colton, all the best and be strong.

 

My parents never drove.

We lived on government (and other) handouts for too long. It's the reason why I sacrifice my social life very often to put myself ahead financially, since I never want to be there again.

And the sad thing is, it could've been much worse. My parents did the best with what they had.

 

Thanks for all the heart-felt posts, folks. We don't have it so bad, huh?

Kudos to all of you who have been through the ringer, so to speak, but have not allowed the difficult times to break you.

 

Sorry for your loss Colton.

We had it tough for a while, more culturally than financially. My natural father was an alcoholic womanizer and my mom divorced him when I was 5 or 6. Now bear in mind that this was the late '60s and these were two chinese young adults living in SF. This was not an acceptable social situation and my mom was ostracized by everyone in the community and blamed for my dad's womanizing ("you must have done something wrong to make him do that"). Well she moved my sister and I out of a nice home in SF and bought on her own a one bedroom condo in a very small outlying suburb. My mom's dad was uprooted from Chinatown and lived with us while my mom worked the graveyard, swing shifts as a single mom in a strange place (mom came from China when she was 14 and thrust into a high school in Texas without any english skills). It was really weird then, growing up with a single mom when 90% of everyone around had mom and dad at home and they were all Caucasian (and there was less than 1% of Asians or blacks). Luckily for us, about a year later my mom met a wonderful electrician who gave me a great father figure and who did quite well even though he only finished 9th grade growing up in Idaho. They have now been married 35 years and growing strong.

 

qtlaw: What a wonderful tale! So glad your saga has an ongoing happy ending.

 

I really appreciate this thread. Thanks.

WB

 

After being laid off from his factory job, my dad worked third shift at the Kentucky Sate Pen (still does) and a day job at a lube shop (only quit the second job about two years ago). My mom worked at a factory for over thirty years and recently went back to school and got an office job after the factory shut down.

We never had extra money to blow on anything we wanted, or to have the "in" clothes, but we still managed to get by. Even when I was 16 I was glad that I had been working for a year to save enough to pay cash for my first (used of course) car instead of having my parents buy me a brand new car for my 16th b-day like a lot of the kids in my school.

I just wish I was able to pull off geting by on next to nothing as well as my parents did. I think if I were on my own I could, but the other half isn't exactly capable of using enough common bleeping sense when it comes to finances.

Thinking back to those days as a child makes me miss them. Things were so much more simple back then. Thanks for this thread.

 

KG: I get the feeling having those kinds of principles will carry you an awful long way in this life. You should be proud.

 

You know, that's a theme that sticks in my head as I get older, how much simpler things were when I was a kid. I kid my wife and kids but it was true, I got clothes for Christmas and birthdays, not toys because my mom did not think they were necessary (I had some toys but not like my boys these days). A big night out was going to Happy Steak, which only happened rarely. My mom was a great cook so I'm not complaining. Nowadays, I take my boys out for breakfast on the weekends and we go out at least 1 a week for dinner.

Great thread. I'm glad we have not forgotten the sacrifices our parents made.

 

Hard to imagine making the sacrifices my mom did to raise four kids on minimal income.

Still amazes me... wish she were here to ask her how she did it.

 

My dad lost his job the day my older sister was born. Ultimately, he had to hit the road, working around 300 days a year on the road God knows where, building chemical plants and the like.

There were times when we went to my grandma's house for a month-long "vacation" in the winter because mom and dad couldn't afford to heat the house. Many times, I had to eat frozen fishsticks, frozen brussel sprouts and pinto beans a few nights a week.

They also knew that there was no way in hell that I had any sort of future in my hometown. It's a ghost town, decaying, lousy with rednecks, crime ridden and no place for anyone with a college education. They pushed me, and of course, I pushed back myself. But ultimately, it's what gave me drive.

 

in the 80s my mom (divorced at the time) kept me fed by running her own business, which was her writing resumes for 25 bucks a pop. i have no clue how she did it. especially since i had a pet cat that never went hungry or went without shots either.

i think it was because my mom drove a ford fiesta...you only had to fill that thing with gas once in the spring, summer, winter and fall and you could drive it like 12 hours a day.

also, as many have said, thoughts and prayers for you and for the fam.