People Share Things They Thought Were Indicators Of Wealth When They Were Kids (30 Tweets)
I bet every one of you have had experiences when you wanted something, but you couldn’t get it because your family didn’t have the money for it or perhaps you only used to get a certain thing once in a very rare while.
This ultimately led you to believe that certain things are only reserved for rich people and if you were to eventually get it, you would feel high class for having it.
Maybe it never was posh in the first place. Regardless, people spent their childhood thinking that. One day, author and teacher Eve Dunbar posted a tweet asking people what were some things that they thought was the height of class when they were children. And people responded with these very memories.
Bored Panda invites you to take a look at what things the people of Twitter grew up believing was high class. Vote on the ones you’ve enjoyed the most or the ones that struck a nostalgic chord with you. And hey, while you’re at it, why not leave a comment in the comments section below?
More info: twitter.com
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100% the same. Started earning money at 12 to get my first set of keys to a rusty jalopy, and I will never let go of the meaning of 'VALUE,' which a brand new car does not have. When something is worth 25% less almost immediately, it's clear that a lot of the price is just in being 'brand new'. Meanwhile, a standard car model will undergo 'major' changes only about every ~15 years. Waste of resources...I'll never be rich enough to justify throwing money out like that.
Oh boy, the difference between lower and upper middle class is HUGE. No one acknowledges that the lower middle class is actually poor.
I love these! My Mom used to put a pack of them in my stocking at Christmas every year when I was a kid.
READ THIS REALLY IMPORTANT! Benetton are an Italian Family, they do cool ads BUT in fact, in Italy they own concession for like 80% of the highway, they earn A LOT of money from them but they spend very little for maitenance, for this a bridge in Genova have collapsed and more than 40pll died.... they are the emblem of hypocrisy.. be carefull whit people like this, they told you "hey we are all brother we care about people and world" and meanwhile they make profit on people shoulders. Most of Italian people hate this family (except for the ones who believe that they believe in that ads" sorry for my english! not my language :/
literally everyone had like $100 and spent it on CANDY and ERASERS. I had $5 from saved up lunch money and bought a book. everyone would look at me like who tf is this person?
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Books to me are definitely the most luxurious item I ever wanted
Goodwill stores are a treasure trove. Found more than one first edition and some autographed.
I found a 1899 copy of a Charles Dickens memoir for 99 cents in my library's sale bin. Also found 2 Folio Press books and a cookbook for $2. Who in world would give away such books? I treasure mine like gold.
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I buy majority of my books from op shops. I managed to get 55 books for $18 once.
Used book shops? Check. Credit card? Check. Monthly bill too high to pay? Check...
Wow! I would just be frozen with where to start first if that ever happened to me!
omfg, being dropped off at the mall with your friends and no spending limit. I've never been there, but some of my friends are. I hope to get there someday, lol
You mean a sewing kit? 😂😂 (Where I'm from that specific biscuit tin is used to store sewing stuff)
I could not agree more!! I still think, at 47, that I can count the number of vacations I've had on my fingers.
I *was* the dishwasher, LOL... In seriousness, yeah. A working dishwasher. Besides me.
Growing up, I had a wonderfully crafted hand-made dollhouse. It was made by a good friend of my mom's, originally used by her daughter (who had by that point grown out of it and was our family's babysitter). It was really special. All the better - we were able to return the favour and pass it back to the daughter some years later when she had a child of her own. :D
I have one and a half in my current apartment that I share with my boyfriend, still feels like a luxury
Note: this post originally had 120 images. It’s been shortened to the top 31 images based on user votes.
Though I didn't realize it at the time, we grew up poor..at least in terms of buying stuff. My idea of rich was if you, the kid, had a TV in your room. I grew up on a small farm. And between being able to go outside whenever you liked, having friends that didn't make a deal out of what they had and folks who were creative In repurposing things for Xmas and birthdays, I can honestly say I never felt like we didn't have money. So maybe the correct way to see this is I didn't grow up poor. Though we didn't have a lot of money, I never felt it's absence.
Awesome! I knew we were poor, bu tmostly b/c other people said so. Where we were, we were "the norm". Make do, do without, or do over. That was just how it was.
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Reading those made me totally reconsiderate my definition of richness. It made me realise that I've had access to most of those thing as a kid, although me and my family never thought of ourselves as a rich family. I wonder how, where, and when those people grew up.
I was born in the 80s and grew up in Southern California my whole life, I could relate to a good 90% of these. The problem with wealth is those that have it feel they don't because they compare themselves to those that have more than they do and not those they have more than.
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What did "rich" people have/do? - A Nintendo Entertainment System and a PC. (We had an Atari 2600) - Rich families had an upstairs. (We could only afford one-story rentals.) - They shopped for clothes at the mall. (We shopped at K-Mart.) - They had a new car. (Our cars were always clunkers that my Dad fixed up quite nicely.) - They ate at non-fast food restaurants. (Our best was Burger King.) - Their Mom stayed home. (Our Mom worked as much as our Dad.) - New swingsets. (Our Dad refurbished ours from parts. It was safe, though!) - Fake Halloween costumes. (Our Mom made ours. Oddly, they turned out far better than the other kids'...) - Rich kids got to buy burgers, hot dogs, and pizza for lunch. (We ate 'tray food'.) - They flew to their vacation spots. (We drove or took the bus.) - They had new TVs. (Ours were older and used.) - They had a new couch and beds. (Ours were second-hand.) - They bought new pants when they wore holes in them. (Mom patched ours.) We eventually got out of poverty, but only after our parents divorced and took separate paths in life. Secondary education and pure luck helped. ...a LOT.
NOTE: Our Mom and Dad always loved us, provided as best they could, and sheltered us from truly knowing our poverty until we were teenagers, when we figured it out ourselves. Then we looked back, and were shocked at how poor we were. -- They only divorced when we were teens, and he still gladly lets her have part of his monthly retirement pay. She doesn't ask for a penny more, and both are gainfully employed. Neither take their income for granted, and none of us "kids" do either. -- We're still all 'savers', and sometimes laugh at how frugal we are, even though we could all live 'the easy life'. But we all give to charity, cause we will always know what poverty was like. -- You remember it in your bones, and never forget.
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This is gonna sound so weird, but here goes, having a red maple tree in your yard. I have no idea why I thought that, but to this day my husband teases me whenever we drive by one.
I have a red maple tree in my front yard! It’s so beautiful.
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Reading these I'm reminded of how weird my upbringing was, cause - long story as short as possible: I started out with growing up in a huge house, upper middleclass, expensive toys and stuff, high fashion clothes, and all that, and then my parents divorced and my mom got sole custody of me and she never had a job at all, and we survived on my dad's alimony so I was suddenly the poor kid with divorced parents, and later also the outsider as my mom abused me til I ran away from home, and I got to live with my dad instead who had a good job and a good pay and I ended up living as a regular middleclass now as an adult.
Reading this thread I realized how lucky I am. Alhamdulillah (Thank God), while I never thought of myself as rich, I had access to pretty much everything on here.
Was so envious of families that went on vacations. We never went on a single one. That was the height of wealth to me, watching classmates leave for disneyland :( I hope to take my kids next year if covid can get under control in the US
Our only "vacations" were road trips to visit family in very non-vacation type places: Pennsylvania, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa. I thought anyone who flew on a plane must be super rich and Disney World, whew! that was not even a dream! Lol
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I used to think that having a doorbell, a fireplace and a built in swimming pool made you rich as only rich people in my neighborhood had those.
Being able to buy books and not just get them from the library. I thought it must be amazing to have the your have your favorites always on hand.
My father always told me as kid that "books don't count". I obviously couldn't expect to be given or gifted anything I wanted right away, except for books. When I wanted a new book, I got it.
Load More Replies... I felt wealthy when we moved to the farm my mom's parents had, and took over part of it, b/c we could finally have all the food we could grow/find. HEAVEN! If I got new shoes, all my own? OMG. That was literally my Christmas present for the year. One pair of shoes, that were new. And that wasn't every Christmas, mind. Had my late dad bothered getting full-time work, we'd have been able to take new shoes and new clothes once a year for granted. Now, the fact I own more than two pairs of shoes (sneakers/trainers, and "dressy") is like a huge dream come true. Ditto a second bathroom. Oh, and not having to cut wood and split it to heat the house in winter. And... Let's just say I am in tears a LOT when I see how wealthy I am in comforts and luxuries. (And yet, we're still not considered well-off by popular standards. No second car or all that.)
Buying a creamsicle. It cost five cents. We didn't have five cents. My dad was going to med school and we lived in a 30 dollar a month housing project where most of the med students and their families lived. Candy was only at Christmas when we got a Christmas package from our grandparents.
As a kid growing up in the 2000s and 2010s these were mine: Wearing store bought clothes not second hand, Really owning any new products (furniture, cars, toys), Central air, A house with stairs and more than one story ,Non-generic food products , and Braces As a young adult now my family is doing a lot better but I still buy mostly second hand products for environmental in addition to some financial reasons. I think my one remaining rich people thing is therapy and being able to pay for college without loans. Also kids who enter college at 18 and had never had a job before it still blows my mind. Everyone in my hometown had a job by 16 or so!
I remember that I was a teenager when I realised we don't have a lot of money. And it was because my mum could only buy me no-name clothes. As I'm 34 now, I think that being rich (in terms of money) is not having ANY debt or loan and have some savings so I can have a job that makes me happy.
For me rich people went on summer vacations to exoctic places like Wisconsin or Michigan. My parents both worked for the airlines at O'Hare. Every summer it was the same old thing, shipped over to England to be with the grandparents. Obviously as I got older I realized how very fortunate we were to have the opportunity to travel and spend so much time abroad. When I married though the vacations my kids went on that they still talk about are the ones to Wisconsin because they were the special ones.
I grew up poor (mostly single parent, on social assistance, in a rental house with exposed wiring that would flood often). My spouse did not (two working parents who each earned a very good income) and during most of his working career he also made very good money. There are a few blessings to growing up poor; it teaches you to appreciate what you have (because you're certainly not getting another whatever any time soon), and how to be resourceful. Due to covid-19, both my spouse and I are off work and it's a lot easier to shift into "poor mode" (buying generic groceries, using coupons, buying groceries that are discounted as they're close to the best before date and freezing them) when you grew up poor and was then a poor student for 6 years, than to adjust from a $120k/year salary to $24k/year on government benefits.
My grandma had a collection of perfumed dusting powders with beautiful puffs. When I was a child, I would smell and try on the powders. She lived to be 94 years old. ❤️
I always thought going to the doctor when you hurt your self but you could still move whatever part of the body was hurt was a rich people thing.As a kid I sprained ankles, pulled muscles, sprained wrists, and one time I even dislocated my rib bc my allergies had gotten so bad and I couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing but I couldnt breathe without it hurting so I just held my breath
From my European perspective that's horrific. Even the poorest people here can get their kids medical help whenever they want or need it.
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I'm shocked nobody said the Starter Pullover Jackets! You were even higher-up on the popularity/rich scale if your zipper was made by YKK (for whatever reason). Annotation...c41c4a.jpg 
I thought, and still do, that being able to take as long a shower as you want without the hot water running out was luxury. I’m in my 30’s and still don’t have this.
I'm 39 and I STILL think that most of these things are only for rich people.
My idea of rich was always and still is having a backyard to play in. I had one till I was 5, and then my parents got divorced. It was condos and apartments from there on out. Gram had a yard, but she was married and well off. Im married now, have a back yard, almost 40 years old and you bet your stars I play back there all the time.
Paying full-price for clothing. When I was a kid, my mom would herd us straight to the clearance sale racks at the back of the store. We weren't even allowed to stop to look at the things that weren't discounted. When I became a teenager and would go to the mall with my friends, I assumed the girls who stopped to browse at the full-price racks must be rich.
I used to think my grandmother was a millionaire because she had a super fancy bathroom. Swan-shaped toiled brush holder, rose-shaped soap, fancy glass soap dishes. But most importantly there were several golden swan figures in there as decoration. I was so sure they were real gold...
Indicators of wealth to me as a kid Clothes and shoes that were brand new and didn't come from second hand shops Holidays Birthday Parties at McDonalds with more than just 2 friends Cars that didn't break down often Food that didn't come out of the freezer Any pets Garages and rooms that weren't permanently used People who didn't have to share a room with their siblings A house phone Had branded Coke or any branded food or drink really
My husband was with my family the first time he saw Niagara Falls. He was disappointed because he was picturing the scene from "Superman" that made the falls look taller.
Lol where do I begin?? A double-doored fridge. Every sibling having their own room. More than one family TV. A computer and/or tv in your room that wasn't ancient. Plenty of good snacks/"cool kid" food in the kitchen. Name brand food/household products. More than one reliable newish car. Vacations. A pool/hot tub. Cable. Big screen TV. Cool clothes that were not hand-me-downs. "Big ticket" toys like Powerwheels or My Size Barbies. "Cool kid" school supplies. Extracurricular activities. Having to go to day care. Being able to frequently replace worn out furniture.
I also forgot...always getting treats from the ice cream truck whenever it came by lol.
Load More Replies... I didn’t realize I’m upper class until I saw a movie with extreme poverty in the US in it. I mean, I went to Disneyland every couple of years, I had two TVs, I wasn’t ever worried about money, my parents took me to an Austrian restaurant for my sister’s birthday once, and if I recall, the bill was insane. When I was thirteen, I once spent an afternoon at Stanford mall racking up a huge bill. When I saw the movie, I started crying because their lights went out, because their electricity was cut. That never happened to us. I think the only time I realized before that that we didn’t have buckets of money was when I asked my dad when we could go back to Disneyland again and he replied, “When you turn a year older and I get a bonus, sweetie.” I try not to be that brat, because wealth is a matter of privilege and generosity is only kindness, right?
My idea of rich growing up was walls in the house that didn’t have exposed insulation. And a sink that had running water in the washroom, always had to use the tub to wash hands and face/ brush teeth.
I was a child of the 40's & 50's, had polio at 6 y/o, no Medical Aid in those days, all expenses paid from Dad's pay, don't know about Hospital bills though. We learnt to turn each penny over, Mum stayed home to keep house, grew flowers & kept chickens to sell. I graduated from HS, had 4 yrs at Univ., and paid Dad back for my tertiary education, plus paid board while living at home. My Dad never earned more than R150 SA Rand, I started at R120 p.m., retired at R7500 - R8000 p.m. (2001) We never felt poor, were satisfied with what we had, although there was a time that I longed for a walky-talky doll.
Things like shoes that fit, enough money for gas or groceries, or adequate school supplies, or a 2nd bathroom: aren't those just signs of middle class? Some of the things, like built in pools or houses with 3+ bathrooms, or some of the expensive clothes are more indicators of upper class. I admit to having been raised privileged. Am I just that out of touch in thinking that "shoes that fit" or "being able to afford groceries" are signs of wealth rather than signs of middle class? Also, my definition of being rich would include buying a new smart phone every couple years, which tons of people do these days. Meanwhile, I'm still walking around with a $30 flip phone I got 3 years ago as my first and only cell phone. So part of the problem is where we choose to spend our money. If you can afford a $1000 phone, but can't afford shoes that fit your kids, you may need to adjust your priorities.
Had an aunt who was wealthy. Her house was a little nicer but both her and my mom were wretched people. To me a wealthy person saves lives, builds homes for people, gets medicine to babies, feeds the poor. And nobody knows about it. This is my life's goal.
When i was a kid and played ice hockey i wanted to be a goaltender but the suit was to much expensive for my parent. i remember the few time i could get people to give me suit for a game and be able to play with my team we Always won because i was good but not able to play. today i live the same for my kids. my older one is good in soccer (and goaltender too) and for now we are able to give him some coaching and the possibility to play at competition level. i'm afraid i won't be able to keep that long.
Funny thing is, I've grown up on the lower side of middle class, but I've always considered myself advantaged and privileged, I guess, just to be in a first world country. Not to say I didn't want things and wish I was wealthier, but all things considered, I was a wealthy person because we had running water and a full functioning indoor bathroom, we had electricity, internet, lots of food and a house with three floors. There's so many people who grew up, and still live, without those things and they would see my life as very rich. This post is about perspective, but we're not going to get many accounts from people who live in third world countries. It would probably make us all feel very privaledged.
A house phone. We'd have to go to the phone booth in the center of our little town to call our relatives in America. Only one of my friends had a house phone growing up and I'm not yet 50
Owning a Nintendo gaming system and a video player. When I was a kid we had neither.
Growing up poor I always dreamed of having a clothes dryer. I hated hanging up the clothes to dry, they'd get stiff and scratchy. And in South Florida we have a rainy season, sometimes it rains for days on end. We didn't have a/c either, so with 100% humidity the clothes wouldn't dry.
Yeah. One TV, and if you disagree on what to watch, you're not watching anything. If the TV works. Etc.
Load More Replies... There's a lot of junk food in this list. My idea of the high life was being able to stay in one place for more than a year, which I did once I got grown.
Though I didn't realize it at the time, we grew up poor..at least in terms of buying stuff. My idea of rich was if you, the kid, had a TV in your room. I grew up on a small farm. And between being able to go outside whenever you liked, having friends that didn't make a deal out of what they had and folks who were creative In repurposing things for Xmas and birthdays, I can honestly say I never felt like we didn't have money. So maybe the correct way to see this is I didn't grow up poor. Though we didn't have a lot of money, I never felt it's absence.
Awesome! I knew we were poor, bu tmostly b/c other people said so. Where we were, we were "the norm". Make do, do without, or do over. That was just how it was.
Load More Replies... Reading those made me totally reconsiderate my definition of richness. It made me realise that I've had access to most of those thing as a kid, although me and my family never thought of ourselves as a rich family. I wonder how, where, and when those people grew up.
I was born in the 80s and grew up in Southern California my whole life, I could relate to a good 90% of these. The problem with wealth is those that have it feel they don't because they compare themselves to those that have more than they do and not those they have more than.
Load More Replies... What did "rich" people have/do? - A Nintendo Entertainment System and a PC. (We had an Atari 2600) - Rich families had an upstairs. (We could only afford one-story rentals.) - They shopped for clothes at the mall. (We shopped at K-Mart.) - They had a new car. (Our cars were always clunkers that my Dad fixed up quite nicely.) - They ate at non-fast food restaurants. (Our best was Burger King.) - Their Mom stayed home. (Our Mom worked as much as our Dad.) - New swingsets. (Our Dad refurbished ours from parts. It was safe, though!) - Fake Halloween costumes. (Our Mom made ours. Oddly, they turned out far better than the other kids'...) - Rich kids got to buy burgers, hot dogs, and pizza for lunch. (We ate 'tray food'.) - They flew to their vacation spots. (We drove or took the bus.) - They had new TVs. (Ours were older and used.) - They had a new couch and beds. (Ours were second-hand.) - They bought new pants when they wore holes in them. (Mom patched ours.) We eventually got out of poverty, but only after our parents divorced and took separate paths in life. Secondary education and pure luck helped. ...a LOT.
NOTE: Our Mom and Dad always loved us, provided as best they could, and sheltered us from truly knowing our poverty until we were teenagers, when we figured it out ourselves. Then we looked back, and were shocked at how poor we were. -- They only divorced when we were teens, and he still gladly lets her have part of his monthly retirement pay. She doesn't ask for a penny more, and both are gainfully employed. Neither take their income for granted, and none of us "kids" do either. -- We're still all 'savers', and sometimes laugh at how frugal we are, even though we could all live 'the easy life'. But we all give to charity, cause we will always know what poverty was like. -- You remember it in your bones, and never forget.
Load More Replies... This is gonna sound so weird, but here goes, having a red maple tree in your yard. I have no idea why I thought that, but to this day my husband teases me whenever we drive by one.
I have a red maple tree in my front yard! It’s so beautiful.
Load More Replies... Reading these I'm reminded of how weird my upbringing was, cause - long story as short as possible: I started out with growing up in a huge house, upper middleclass, expensive toys and stuff, high fashion clothes, and all that, and then my parents divorced and my mom got sole custody of me and she never had a job at all, and we survived on my dad's alimony so I was suddenly the poor kid with divorced parents, and later also the outsider as my mom abused me til I ran away from home, and I got to live with my dad instead who had a good job and a good pay and I ended up living as a regular middleclass now as an adult.
Reading this thread I realized how lucky I am. Alhamdulillah (Thank God), while I never thought of myself as rich, I had access to pretty much everything on here.
Was so envious of families that went on vacations. We never went on a single one. That was the height of wealth to me, watching classmates leave for disneyland :( I hope to take my kids next year if covid can get under control in the US
Our only "vacations" were road trips to visit family in very non-vacation type places: Pennsylvania, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa. I thought anyone who flew on a plane must be super rich and Disney World, whew! that was not even a dream! Lol
Load More Replies... I used to think that having a doorbell, a fireplace and a built in swimming pool made you rich as only rich people in my neighborhood had those.
Being able to buy books and not just get them from the library. I thought it must be amazing to have the your have your favorites always on hand.
My father always told me as kid that "books don't count". I obviously couldn't expect to be given or gifted anything I wanted right away, except for books. When I wanted a new book, I got it.
Load More Replies... I felt wealthy when we moved to the farm my mom's parents had, and took over part of it, b/c we could finally have all the food we could grow/find. HEAVEN! If I got new shoes, all my own? OMG. That was literally my Christmas present for the year. One pair of shoes, that were new. And that wasn't every Christmas, mind. Had my late dad bothered getting full-time work, we'd have been able to take new shoes and new clothes once a year for granted. Now, the fact I own more than two pairs of shoes (sneakers/trainers, and "dressy") is like a huge dream come true. Ditto a second bathroom. Oh, and not having to cut wood and split it to heat the house in winter. And... Let's just say I am in tears a LOT when I see how wealthy I am in comforts and luxuries. (And yet, we're still not considered well-off by popular standards. No second car or all that.)
Buying a creamsicle. It cost five cents. We didn't have five cents. My dad was going to med school and we lived in a 30 dollar a month housing project where most of the med students and their families lived. Candy was only at Christmas when we got a Christmas package from our grandparents.
As a kid growing up in the 2000s and 2010s these were mine: Wearing store bought clothes not second hand, Really owning any new products (furniture, cars, toys), Central air, A house with stairs and more than one story ,Non-generic food products , and Braces As a young adult now my family is doing a lot better but I still buy mostly second hand products for environmental in addition to some financial reasons. I think my one remaining rich people thing is therapy and being able to pay for college without loans. Also kids who enter college at 18 and had never had a job before it still blows my mind. Everyone in my hometown had a job by 16 or so!
I remember that I was a teenager when I realised we don't have a lot of money. And it was because my mum could only buy me no-name clothes. As I'm 34 now, I think that being rich (in terms of money) is not having ANY debt or loan and have some savings so I can have a job that makes me happy.
For me rich people went on summer vacations to exoctic places like Wisconsin or Michigan. My parents both worked for the airlines at O'Hare. Every summer it was the same old thing, shipped over to England to be with the grandparents. Obviously as I got older I realized how very fortunate we were to have the opportunity to travel and spend so much time abroad. When I married though the vacations my kids went on that they still talk about are the ones to Wisconsin because they were the special ones.
I grew up poor (mostly single parent, on social assistance, in a rental house with exposed wiring that would flood often). My spouse did not (two working parents who each earned a very good income) and during most of his working career he also made very good money. There are a few blessings to growing up poor; it teaches you to appreciate what you have (because you're certainly not getting another whatever any time soon), and how to be resourceful. Due to covid-19, both my spouse and I are off work and it's a lot easier to shift into "poor mode" (buying generic groceries, using coupons, buying groceries that are discounted as they're close to the best before date and freezing them) when you grew up poor and was then a poor student for 6 years, than to adjust from a $120k/year salary to $24k/year on government benefits.
My grandma had a collection of perfumed dusting powders with beautiful puffs. When I was a child, I would smell and try on the powders. She lived to be 94 years old. ❤️
I always thought going to the doctor when you hurt your self but you could still move whatever part of the body was hurt was a rich people thing.As a kid I sprained ankles, pulled muscles, sprained wrists, and one time I even dislocated my rib bc my allergies had gotten so bad and I couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing but I couldnt breathe without it hurting so I just held my breath
From my European perspective that's horrific. Even the poorest people here can get their kids medical help whenever they want or need it.
Load More Replies... I'm shocked nobody said the Starter Pullover Jackets! You were even higher-up on the popularity/rich scale if your zipper was made by YKK (for whatever reason). Annotation...c41c4a.jpg
I thought, and still do, that being able to take as long a shower as you want without the hot water running out was luxury. I’m in my 30’s and still don’t have this.
I'm 39 and I STILL think that most of these things are only for rich people.
My idea of rich was always and still is having a backyard to play in. I had one till I was 5, and then my parents got divorced. It was condos and apartments from there on out. Gram had a yard, but she was married and well off. Im married now, have a back yard, almost 40 years old and you bet your stars I play back there all the time.
Paying full-price for clothing. When I was a kid, my mom would herd us straight to the clearance sale racks at the back of the store. We weren't even allowed to stop to look at the things that weren't discounted. When I became a teenager and would go to the mall with my friends, I assumed the girls who stopped to browse at the full-price racks must be rich.
I used to think my grandmother was a millionaire because she had a super fancy bathroom. Swan-shaped toiled brush holder, rose-shaped soap, fancy glass soap dishes. But most importantly there were several golden swan figures in there as decoration. I was so sure they were real gold...
Indicators of wealth to me as a kid Clothes and shoes that were brand new and didn't come from second hand shops Holidays Birthday Parties at McDonalds with more than just 2 friends Cars that didn't break down often Food that didn't come out of the freezer Any pets Garages and rooms that weren't permanently used People who didn't have to share a room with their siblings A house phone Had branded Coke or any branded food or drink really
My husband was with my family the first time he saw Niagara Falls. He was disappointed because he was picturing the scene from "Superman" that made the falls look taller.
Lol where do I begin?? A double-doored fridge. Every sibling having their own room. More than one family TV. A computer and/or tv in your room that wasn't ancient. Plenty of good snacks/"cool kid" food in the kitchen. Name brand food/household products. More than one reliable newish car. Vacations. A pool/hot tub. Cable. Big screen TV. Cool clothes that were not hand-me-downs. "Big ticket" toys like Powerwheels or My Size Barbies. "Cool kid" school supplies. Extracurricular activities. Having to go to day care. Being able to frequently replace worn out furniture.
I also forgot...always getting treats from the ice cream truck whenever it came by lol.
Load More Replies... I didn’t realize I’m upper class until I saw a movie with extreme poverty in the US in it. I mean, I went to Disneyland every couple of years, I had two TVs, I wasn’t ever worried about money, my parents took me to an Austrian restaurant for my sister’s birthday once, and if I recall, the bill was insane. When I was thirteen, I once spent an afternoon at Stanford mall racking up a huge bill. When I saw the movie, I started crying because their lights went out, because their electricity was cut. That never happened to us. I think the only time I realized before that that we didn’t have buckets of money was when I asked my dad when we could go back to Disneyland again and he replied, “When you turn a year older and I get a bonus, sweetie.” I try not to be that brat, because wealth is a matter of privilege and generosity is only kindness, right?
My idea of rich growing up was walls in the house that didn’t have exposed insulation. And a sink that had running water in the washroom, always had to use the tub to wash hands and face/ brush teeth.
I was a child of the 40's & 50's, had polio at 6 y/o, no Medical Aid in those days, all expenses paid from Dad's pay, don't know about Hospital bills though. We learnt to turn each penny over, Mum stayed home to keep house, grew flowers & kept chickens to sell. I graduated from HS, had 4 yrs at Univ., and paid Dad back for my tertiary education, plus paid board while living at home. My Dad never earned more than R150 SA Rand, I started at R120 p.m., retired at R7500 - R8000 p.m. (2001) We never felt poor, were satisfied with what we had, although there was a time that I longed for a walky-talky doll.
Things like shoes that fit, enough money for gas or groceries, or adequate school supplies, or a 2nd bathroom: aren't those just signs of middle class? Some of the things, like built in pools or houses with 3+ bathrooms, or some of the expensive clothes are more indicators of upper class. I admit to having been raised privileged. Am I just that out of touch in thinking that "shoes that fit" or "being able to afford groceries" are signs of wealth rather than signs of middle class? Also, my definition of being rich would include buying a new smart phone every couple years, which tons of people do these days. Meanwhile, I'm still walking around with a $30 flip phone I got 3 years ago as my first and only cell phone. So part of the problem is where we choose to spend our money. If you can afford a $1000 phone, but can't afford shoes that fit your kids, you may need to adjust your priorities.
Had an aunt who was wealthy. Her house was a little nicer but both her and my mom were wretched people. To me a wealthy person saves lives, builds homes for people, gets medicine to babies, feeds the poor. And nobody knows about it. This is my life's goal.
When i was a kid and played ice hockey i wanted to be a goaltender but the suit was to much expensive for my parent. i remember the few time i could get people to give me suit for a game and be able to play with my team we Always won because i was good but not able to play. today i live the same for my kids. my older one is good in soccer (and goaltender too) and for now we are able to give him some coaching and the possibility to play at competition level. i'm afraid i won't be able to keep that long.
Funny thing is, I've grown up on the lower side of middle class, but I've always considered myself advantaged and privileged, I guess, just to be in a first world country. Not to say I didn't want things and wish I was wealthier, but all things considered, I was a wealthy person because we had running water and a full functioning indoor bathroom, we had electricity, internet, lots of food and a house with three floors. There's so many people who grew up, and still live, without those things and they would see my life as very rich. This post is about perspective, but we're not going to get many accounts from people who live in third world countries. It would probably make us all feel very privaledged.
A house phone. We'd have to go to the phone booth in the center of our little town to call our relatives in America. Only one of my friends had a house phone growing up and I'm not yet 50
Owning a Nintendo gaming system and a video player. When I was a kid we had neither.
Growing up poor I always dreamed of having a clothes dryer. I hated hanging up the clothes to dry, they'd get stiff and scratchy. And in South Florida we have a rainy season, sometimes it rains for days on end. We didn't have a/c either, so with 100% humidity the clothes wouldn't dry.
Yeah. One TV, and if you disagree on what to watch, you're not watching anything. If the TV works. Etc.
Load More Replies... There's a lot of junk food in this list. My idea of the high life was being able to stay in one place for more than a year, which I did once I got grown.
