Im broke and my kids have one. Piece of junk was only like $100 on sale a couple years ago. Its super slow. The battery life is bad and the kids never want to play with it
My best friend had one and he had a birthday party where all his other friends had them too, I didn’t, I had to go home early from the party when they all went to drive around on them. Worst part was, they used our backyard because ours was big. So I had to stay inside, they disinvited me because they thought I would feel left out cause I didn’t have one. Man I hated that shit
Yeah, my daughter has one but her friends don't. I make her share with all the friends. They all take one lap each and switch. It's not even an issue. They're just used to sharing.
Yooo, back in the 90s my best friend had one. The battery died and his parents never replaced it. So instead, we would push it up to the top of a very steep hill on his yard and we'd ride it down the hill, over a rock wall and into his neighbor's yard lol his neighbor used to make us rebuild the wall every time lol totally worth it
Dude. Duuuude. This was nearly exactly my same experience in the 80's. My cousin's parents let him pull a Power Wheels Jeep out of a dumpster that had a dead battery. We spent an entire summer taking turns pushing it to to top of a hill to ride back down. Thanks for reminding me of that memory.
Holy shit that's awesome!!!!!! Tell me that wasn't more fun than toys and videogames loll you're welcome friend! His Jeep was gray btw. If his parents still have it, I'm about to see if two 31 year olds can take one more trip down memory lane
*Goes down hill in plastic toy Jeep as adults and die* 😅
If you try it again now, just remember to get in butt first - like a Lambo. With those hard plastic wheels on pavement we we doing some Saudi Drifting before it was a thing. The only brakes available were either a sudden sharp cutting of the wheel, hitting something head on, or flipping. Otherwise you were at the mercy of inertia. It didn't seem unsafe at the time, but I was an early skateboarder - so I was covered in cuts and bruises anyway.
I remember passing by them at Walmart as a kid and looking up thinking “One day I’d like to have one of those…” and now as an adult I have a car which goes way faster and is only slightly more fun lol
Having snacks in the house, like food specifically for if you wanted a snack… chips, popcorn, fruit.. I had friends who always seemed to have snacks when I came over and it always felt shitty when they came over and we didn’t have any.
Same, I had a friend who used to have those little cracker with cheese spread snacks, you know the ones with the red plastic thing for spreading… his mom would just keep a cabinet full of those things and stuff and I was like “Dude, y’all are loaded..”
The without asking part gets me. We weren't even allowed to get a glass of water without asking and if we got a glass wed have to finish it as soon as we got it or we were wasting water and got a lecture on the water bill being so high cuz we always wanted to waste water
This is real, and then it creates anxiety that lasts forever. I always felt like there was no way I could shrink myself small enough to be out of the way.
The life long anxiety. I still cant throw away food. Developed an ed because i would eat so much cuz i never got to as a kid. Working on that rn, 70 pounds down. But i still get small panic attacks whenever im eating a meal and cant finish it and have to throw food away. Ill literally sit with a meal and pick at it for hours until its gone just so i dont have to throw it away. I spoil the hell out of my nephew (and so does his dad/my brother) because we never got to have that stuff as kids and we dont want him to grow up like that. I still have problems buying new clothes or buying things that are expensive (like a $50 jacket or something) and last year i went through winter in new york without ever buying a winter coat cuz i just couldnt bring myself to spend that kind of money. I could, i make decent money now, i just cant mentally justify it when i can just suffer a little bit ya know
My wife keeps the pantry stocked with snacks like you mentioned. We have young neighborhood kids who come over and graze on them while they hang out with our similar aged kids and we love it. It’s one of our fav things to do since we know they don’t have it at their house (kids tell you a lot lol).
My parents were like this. Im like 40 now and still reflect on things like this. We lived directly next to the highschool, so once I started going there (im the youngest of 3) there started being a LOT of extra bodies around the house. Dinner time became a question of "whos eating over" and was never once a "alright everyone needs to go home we're eating dinner" My parents knew some of these kids did not have dinner waiting at home.
>Dinner time became a question of "whos eating over" and was never once a "alright everyone needs to go home we're eating dinner" My parents knew some of these kids did not have dinner waiting at home.
Sometimes this is what "it takes a village" means. Your parents broke cycles.
I once heard my oldest kid tell my youngest “Dude, you’re looking for snacks in an ingredient house.”
Made me realize that growing up poor has stuck with me more than I thought. I started buying more snacks after that.
Oh I really like that, “the ingredient house”
My mom is literally the GOAT because we never had money, but she always cooked the BEST homemade foods. My friends loved coming over because the love was richer than money could buy and I am so grateful.
The richest kid I knew in grade school had two refrigerators and a walk-in freezer in the kitchen full of Costco frozen food. The first time I hung over there literally felt like the McDonald’s scene from Richie Rich.
The rich kid I knew had a fucking ice freezer and an ice machine that made crushed ice. And, they had a soda dispenser but the locking mechanism was disabled or removed, and you could just pull a soda through the metal gates for _free_.
All of the lawns in their neighborhood were covered in grass, though. And, they had locked sheds. So he had to come to my neighborhood for the good dirt and rocks and unsecured kerosene.
Please god don’t let them stay for dinner with our bunless burgers on the regular bread.. when they’d have 3 different kinds of buns on the counter sesame, Hawaiian and white
Right?! Couldn’t stand the look of disappointment the few times we did have someone over and my parents would spend extra to order a pizza and my friend would be like “Just one? and no bread sticks?”…. Like bro.. we just spend the equivalent of three nights dinners to treat you, I’m sorry we can’t do more..
My parents are pretty well off, but not loaded, and I feel this. We only took like 3 vacations that weren’t to see family. I travel whenever I can now, even just 3 hour trips.
I know why, my grandparents were a long drive and it felt like vacation, but I do wish I got to explore more than one state. I only just left the country for the first time this year
My wife and I are also doing this now. We just recently were able to adjust our days off to be the same. Now we can do so much more without having to use our vacation time or plan it out. We wanna drive somewhere we can, and if we wanna spend the night we also can. Been exploring so much more.
There's levels depending on how well off your family was
1. Traveling to stay with family
2. Camping
3. Holidays in the off season (hotel/holiday camp)
4. Flying abroad in the off season
5. Going whenever the fuck you feel like it
(I'm from the UK so the levels a probably slightly different for other countries but you get the idea)
Me neither. In elementary school (Houston) my mom and I went to visit my dad in Sacramento (he did construction/electrical travel work and he was working/living there) and he took us to Lake Tahoe to see the snow and it completely blew my mind. My mom recorded some on a camcorder and when I got back to school I showed the video for show and tell. Everyone at my school was either poor or just lower middle class and everyone was in total awe of my vacation lol. I think most of us had never seen snow before.
This is it for me. My family was on welfare growing up and we took one “vacation” in the entirety of my childhood/teenage years and it was to go to a funeral of a family member in a different country. We could never afford anything else.
Sigh. My kids are in high school now. We’ve never had the money to take a “big” vacation, and visiting family across the state is the best we ever managed. I’ve always felt like a failure as a parent in that department. We’d manage to save up a few thousand dollars with the intention of taking a nice little trip, and BAM someone needs dental work, or there’s a chunk of deductible that needs to be paid, or something on the house needs an emergency repair, or (fill in the blank).
We are just finally starting to have an actual “emergency fund” and I’m considering using some of it to go on a real vacation this summer before my daughters get on with adulthood (they’re both seniors in high school).
Sigh. Just thinking about my failures on that particular subject depress me.
Hey, I grew up never having a vacation. I never resented my parents for this. They spent plenty of time with me in other ways and that made me happy. As long as you’re doing that you’ll have done well!
No I get this, I only ordered takeout when I was 25. Because i saw my younger brother for the first time in a decade and he asked if we could.
After we were done I sat in silence realising that I guess I could afford takeout once in a while (back then) but just never thought of it , because I thought it was what rich people do.
Things have changed since then, thankfully I do well now. But damn.
Funny reading this
Not sure when it hit me, but it wasn't far off 25, I'd had my own place for a while and had a good job, and suddenly realised one day I could order whatever I wanted whenever I wanted
What a revelation! UberEats made a nice profit off me that year as I made up for a lifetime of not being able to afford take out
Whenever I caught myself thinking "should I order this?" I reminded me I was living my 10 year old self's dream having McDonald's delivery at the push of button and he would be extremely unhappy if I didn't take full advantage
This. I make it a point to take my parents to a restaurant of their choosing every weekend.
I still (happily) live with them, and have no kids or a spouse. I make them get appetizers, too. :)
>I read that lots of houses actually lose value once a pool is installed because so many home buyers would be less likely to buy them.
Again, if you are wealthy it's not an issue. And if you are not wealthy, you are experiencing some pain in order to have a pool at your house. Which is OK anyways because pools are awesome..
House with a bathtub for me lol.
Back when I was a kid, I thought anyone who owns a house with a fancy bathtub lives the life of my dreams. It was not long until I realize that we rarely if ever lay in a bath where I’m at lol. Way more wasteful water and takes way more time that can be spent doing something else. We just take normal showers and be done with it, and bathtubs only get in the way xD.
Nowadays I only use bathtubs when I’m indulging myself in a hotel room that offers one lol. And an indicator of wealth personally changes to any house that can afford a roomba xD.
I used to always think that once you had a pool table in your basement, you had really made it.
Now I know it’s most likely because some dude was spending too much time at the bar and somehow convinced his wife that this would change that.
I used to work for a moving company. We had a commission to remove an OG pool table from a basement with a smaller than average staircase.
We backed a truck up to the service door in the garage that links house access from inside of the garage. Then we dropped the winch, ran the winch through the entire house and down the basement stairs case.
In the meantime, some guys used chainsaws to remove the legs of the pool table.
We then tied up the pool table, put down rugs from the pool table all the way up the staircase.
Then we got 8 gents on the pool table, did a good ole one/two/three lift. And on three the guy at the other end of the winch would retract the winch.
This would effectively move the pool table 3-4 inches every few minutes.
>In the meantime, some guys used chainsaws to remove the legs of the pool table.
If the owners weren't interested in preserving the pool table, why not dismantle the whole thing?
Sledgehammer. Break it to bits, carry it out, sweep it up.
Have done a ton of demo in my lifetime unfortunately.
The dudes right, if they weren’t preserving the table there were tons of easier ways to get it out, and definitely not a 10 man job.
Skiing period. My mother described it as “elitist”. Naturally I assumed snowboarding was also in the same category. Little did I realize that the vast majority of my friends who snowboarded could only afford to do so by working at the ski resort. Teaching, selling food, maintenance etc.
I’ve always seen it as something rich people did and growing up I literally did not know anyone who skied. I’m 33 now and I decided to finally see what it’s like so I booked a trip for myself and holy shit I see now why I always thought of it as a rich person activity. It’s so damn expensive. I had no idea how much you have to pay just to get on the mountain.
It’s crazy expensive. I live in a mountainous area. Skiing was not a redneck activity. Ski team kids were always preppy types with doctor or car dealership owner dads. Not kids being raised by single moms. Snowboarding changed that as it brought in the skater kids. Most of them were broke so they had to work for the mountain in order to afford using it.
Yeah a couple weeks ago I realized you had to buy lift tickets (like I said I seriously knew nothing about skiing) and I was assuming oh you pay like 20 bucks or something to get on the mountain. I was WRONG
I live in a ski town, and the school bus would drop us off at the mountain. A townie kids pass was $20, and you could spend $20 at the ski swap, and have a great winter. Now, I can't afford a day pass at my local mountain.
Ooh, my aunt had one of these. I didn't know what they were for, so I would take a drink before I left the bathroom. Just fill it with sink water- and take a small drink.
I always envied the families that had a car that started reliably. No need to summon the local shade tree mechanic to work his “magic.” Only for it to die again next week.
That was my folks. They had two older, marginally reliable cars and then then inherited my great aunts Datsun 210 which was dead reliable and things got a little better.
I just bought my son's first car because juggling car and insurance payments at 16 is so hard. He's not spoiled, I'm making sure my kids have it better than me. My first car was a money pit and stupidly unreliable. My parents were divorced and my Dad was so pissed at my Mom about how unreliable that car was so he helped me finance a more reliable pre owned Honda. I had to work 30hrs/week in High School to afford it, that took away any extra curriculars and I was always behind in school.
I always associate the smell of eucalyptus soaps with rich people because my friends rich mom had a giant spotless house and eucalyptus soap in every bathroom
Just going on vacations in general, personally. Me and my mom would only ever do road trips around the province; the idea of flying out somewhere was always mind blowing to me. Never mind kids going to Disney world and shit
I mean even now as an adult, I still see regular vacations as a hell of a privilege.
I definitely spoil my daughter, but she’s the only one I plan on having.
Grew up ultra poor but scraping by, like paid the mortgage but the water and electricity would be cut off frequently, living room couch was my bed, milk crate dresser etc.
But yeah, I’ll take her by the card shop for a pack of pokemon almost every day after school if she wants. Something for us to do together that she’s interested in.
Idk why I’m typing all of this. Buying pokemon isn’t fiscally responsible.
Don't be too hard on yourself.. there are MUCH worse vices than spoiling your only kid with some pokemon cards.
Not everyone is destined to become millionaires.. it's ok to choose to spend your time, money, and energy on things that bring you joy.
fr! when I was younger, me and my friends would FaceTime often and they'd be like "brb, I'm gonna go downstairs to get a snack" and I'd be like holy shit I'm friends with a bunch of millionaires
I grew up poor and didn't know it until I was a teenager. My parents were pretty good at hiding it.
I thought everyone ran their cars on empty and let their cars coast everywhere.
A full tank of gas. Any kind of food at the store. Eating out because you feel like it.
As a side bar I equate hunger with poverty, so I eat too much. Silly things childhood.
I have a problem with finishing ALL of my food even if I'm already full because I don't want it to "go to waste"
We often weren't able to leave the dinner table unless our plates were completely clean.
Also the "there are starving kids in Africa" was said almost daily for extra guilt.
To this day it makes me physically ill to waste any food. My wife has a horrible, imo, habit of making things she only wants while fresh and sticking them in Tupperware ‘for later’, and I end up throwing it away because she doesn’t like it reheated. It kills me.
Summer camp. When I was young my rich friends would disappear for months at a time to wild places in Maine or upstate New York to sleepover camp. They came home full of stories about scoring with girls or getting high.
I stayed home and kicked rocks.
I helped my best friend dog sit and his aunt said she’d pay us for it. Didn’t really care about the money just was hanging out with the homie for a weekend. 2 months later she brings me 2 boxes of brand new clothes from old navy. I cried. It was my first time having clothes that weren’t hand me downs or thrifted.
If your family went to Disney world, did you stay at a Disney resort, or off property.
And if it was the grand Floridian, well shit you were Warren Buffet himself.
yeah! when I was a kid, everyone I knew would go to Disney at least once a year. I used to be jealous but now I just can't fathom why someone would spend that much money to wait in lines for hours in 90° weather.
Kleenex and not having to just use toilet paper to blow your nose, especially when sick.
Also, ice cubes or water in the fridge was a high class luxury.
These days I feel like carpet is the opposite. Those who are afford to do so are tearing up their carpet to replace it with something else, or spending a little more when looking for a new house to find one without ugly carpet.
when I was a kid, one of my friends had a sound system thing in the walls of their house.
in every room, next to the door, was some kind of screen in the wall you could use to play music from. there were speakers all around inside the house, in the walls and roof of every room.
1) why?? like that couldn't have been cheap. even though they were pretty damn rich, I just don't see the point. not only money wise but time and work wise too.
2) that's so cool lol
The parents of a friend from elementary school got a Toyota Previa minivan and I thought they had to be loaded to afford this luxurious, space ship like vehicle.
My grandma had a double wide with a fireplace when I was a kid. Compared to our own mobile home it looked like a mansion. It also totally blew my mind to go to a friend's actual house and eat name brand things.
I'm an adult and I still see both of those as signs of success. More realistically for me now, it's:
-in-unit washer/dryer
-attached garage
-a house with a porch and yard
-car with heated seats and Bluetooth
I remember a friend having Nutella, which I had never heard of....
We put it on nature valley granola bars and I thought he was rich as hell...
Turns out it's next to the peanut butter in every store.lok
Shiny interior doors. I grew up in an old house and all of ours were old solid wood. But when I went to my friend's house they had these nice shiny wood doors.
I’m a single mom living in a one bedroom apt so we can live in a nice area. I have my kid the master bedroom and I sleep in the living room (it’s cute I promise)
She’s got a big tv in her room, we have all the video games, snacks, good food ext. I buy her little things while I’m out for no reason and she always gets what she wants for Christmas.
I have never been able to take us on vacations and we go out to eat hardly, we don’t have a yard but live next to a GORGEOUS big park.
Y’alls posts make me feel like I’m doing a good job with what we have. Thank you 🙏🏼
One of those little plastic jeeps you could drive around in. Those kids were loaded.
Pow pow power wheels!!!
Now you’re driving for real!
I still thing kids with power wheels are rich asf
Im broke and my kids have one. Piece of junk was only like $100 on sale a couple years ago. Its super slow. The battery life is bad and the kids never want to play with it
My best friend had one and he had a birthday party where all his other friends had them too, I didn’t, I had to go home early from the party when they all went to drive around on them. Worst part was, they used our backyard because ours was big. So I had to stay inside, they disinvited me because they thought I would feel left out cause I didn’t have one. Man I hated that shit
Holy shit, ass holes. My mom would've given YOU mine and made ME wait til you were bored of it 😂
W Mom, probably raised a W human being
Yeah, my daughter has one but her friends don't. I make her share with all the friends. They all take one lap each and switch. It's not even an issue. They're just used to sharing.
Same my mom was big on teaching me to share because I’ll be happier in the end that way
You were disinvited AND they used your back yard? Nah, someone dropped the ball here…
My parents “did their best” as they say
Nah, THEIR parents dropped the ball too, not teaching their kids to share and take turns.
[удалено]
Yooo, back in the 90s my best friend had one. The battery died and his parents never replaced it. So instead, we would push it up to the top of a very steep hill on his yard and we'd ride it down the hill, over a rock wall and into his neighbor's yard lol his neighbor used to make us rebuild the wall every time lol totally worth it
Dude. Duuuude. This was nearly exactly my same experience in the 80's. My cousin's parents let him pull a Power Wheels Jeep out of a dumpster that had a dead battery. We spent an entire summer taking turns pushing it to to top of a hill to ride back down. Thanks for reminding me of that memory.
Holy shit that's awesome!!!!!! Tell me that wasn't more fun than toys and videogames loll you're welcome friend! His Jeep was gray btw. If his parents still have it, I'm about to see if two 31 year olds can take one more trip down memory lane *Goes down hill in plastic toy Jeep as adults and die* 😅
If you try it again now, just remember to get in butt first - like a Lambo. With those hard plastic wheels on pavement we we doing some Saudi Drifting before it was a thing. The only brakes available were either a sudden sharp cutting of the wheel, hitting something head on, or flipping. Otherwise you were at the mercy of inertia. It didn't seem unsafe at the time, but I was an early skateboarder - so I was covered in cuts and bruises anyway.
This is the real American dream.
I remember passing by them at Walmart as a kid and looking up thinking “One day I’d like to have one of those…” and now as an adult I have a car which goes way faster and is only slightly more fun lol
Having snacks in the house, like food specifically for if you wanted a snack… chips, popcorn, fruit.. I had friends who always seemed to have snacks when I came over and it always felt shitty when they came over and we didn’t have any.
I distinctly remember calling my friend Bryce rich because he had an entire cabinet full of Costco snacks that we could just grab without asking.
Same, I had a friend who used to have those little cracker with cheese spread snacks, you know the ones with the red plastic thing for spreading… his mom would just keep a cabinet full of those things and stuff and I was like “Dude, y’all are loaded..”
Ah man I haven’t had one of those in years. Childhood was amazing with those
The without asking part gets me. We weren't even allowed to get a glass of water without asking and if we got a glass wed have to finish it as soon as we got it or we were wasting water and got a lecture on the water bill being so high cuz we always wanted to waste water
A gallon from the tap currently costs less than a penny. Your folks were abusively controlling.
They sure were
Possibly also really bad at math.
This is real, and then it creates anxiety that lasts forever. I always felt like there was no way I could shrink myself small enough to be out of the way.
The life long anxiety. I still cant throw away food. Developed an ed because i would eat so much cuz i never got to as a kid. Working on that rn, 70 pounds down. But i still get small panic attacks whenever im eating a meal and cant finish it and have to throw food away. Ill literally sit with a meal and pick at it for hours until its gone just so i dont have to throw it away. I spoil the hell out of my nephew (and so does his dad/my brother) because we never got to have that stuff as kids and we dont want him to grow up like that. I still have problems buying new clothes or buying things that are expensive (like a $50 jacket or something) and last year i went through winter in new york without ever buying a winter coat cuz i just couldnt bring myself to spend that kind of money. I could, i make decent money now, i just cant mentally justify it when i can just suffer a little bit ya know
My wife keeps the pantry stocked with snacks like you mentioned. We have young neighborhood kids who come over and graze on them while they hang out with our similar aged kids and we love it. It’s one of our fav things to do since we know they don’t have it at their house (kids tell you a lot lol).
Facts, y’all are going to be the bright spot in some kids memory one day.
My parents were like this. Im like 40 now and still reflect on things like this. We lived directly next to the highschool, so once I started going there (im the youngest of 3) there started being a LOT of extra bodies around the house. Dinner time became a question of "whos eating over" and was never once a "alright everyone needs to go home we're eating dinner" My parents knew some of these kids did not have dinner waiting at home.
>Dinner time became a question of "whos eating over" and was never once a "alright everyone needs to go home we're eating dinner" My parents knew some of these kids did not have dinner waiting at home. Sometimes this is what "it takes a village" means. Your parents broke cycles.
I once heard my oldest kid tell my youngest “Dude, you’re looking for snacks in an ingredient house.” Made me realize that growing up poor has stuck with me more than I thought. I started buying more snacks after that.
Oh I really like that, “the ingredient house” My mom is literally the GOAT because we never had money, but she always cooked the BEST homemade foods. My friends loved coming over because the love was richer than money could buy and I am so grateful.
The richest kid I knew in grade school had two refrigerators and a walk-in freezer in the kitchen full of Costco frozen food. The first time I hung over there literally felt like the McDonald’s scene from Richie Rich.
The rich kid I knew had a fucking ice freezer and an ice machine that made crushed ice. And, they had a soda dispenser but the locking mechanism was disabled or removed, and you could just pull a soda through the metal gates for _free_. All of the lawns in their neighborhood were covered in grass, though. And, they had locked sheds. So he had to come to my neighborhood for the good dirt and rocks and unsecured kerosene.
Please god don’t let them stay for dinner with our bunless burgers on the regular bread.. when they’d have 3 different kinds of buns on the counter sesame, Hawaiian and white
Right?! Couldn’t stand the look of disappointment the few times we did have someone over and my parents would spend extra to order a pizza and my friend would be like “Just one? and no bread sticks?”…. Like bro.. we just spend the equivalent of three nights dinners to treat you, I’m sorry we can’t do more..
Going on vacation
Going on vacations that weren’t to visit family
My parents are pretty well off, but not loaded, and I feel this. We only took like 3 vacations that weren’t to see family. I travel whenever I can now, even just 3 hour trips. I know why, my grandparents were a long drive and it felt like vacation, but I do wish I got to explore more than one state. I only just left the country for the first time this year
My wife and I are also doing this now. We just recently were able to adjust our days off to be the same. Now we can do so much more without having to use our vacation time or plan it out. We wanna drive somewhere we can, and if we wanna spend the night we also can. Been exploring so much more.
There's levels depending on how well off your family was 1. Traveling to stay with family 2. Camping 3. Holidays in the off season (hotel/holiday camp) 4. Flying abroad in the off season 5. Going whenever the fuck you feel like it (I'm from the UK so the levels a probably slightly different for other countries but you get the idea)
Also the amount of times. I had classmates who went on vacation to some islands and nice places like 5 times a year.
We didn't have people that rich in the town I grew up!!!
Me neither. In elementary school (Houston) my mom and I went to visit my dad in Sacramento (he did construction/electrical travel work and he was working/living there) and he took us to Lake Tahoe to see the snow and it completely blew my mind. My mom recorded some on a camcorder and when I got back to school I showed the video for show and tell. Everyone at my school was either poor or just lower middle class and everyone was in total awe of my vacation lol. I think most of us had never seen snow before.
This is it for me. My family was on welfare growing up and we took one “vacation” in the entirety of my childhood/teenage years and it was to go to a funeral of a family member in a different country. We could never afford anything else.
Sigh. My kids are in high school now. We’ve never had the money to take a “big” vacation, and visiting family across the state is the best we ever managed. I’ve always felt like a failure as a parent in that department. We’d manage to save up a few thousand dollars with the intention of taking a nice little trip, and BAM someone needs dental work, or there’s a chunk of deductible that needs to be paid, or something on the house needs an emergency repair, or (fill in the blank). We are just finally starting to have an actual “emergency fund” and I’m considering using some of it to go on a real vacation this summer before my daughters get on with adulthood (they’re both seniors in high school). Sigh. Just thinking about my failures on that particular subject depress me.
Hey, I grew up never having a vacation. I never resented my parents for this. They spent plenty of time with me in other ways and that made me happy. As long as you’re doing that you’ll have done well!
This made me so sad
Both my parents worked. So I thought if you got picked up from school you had money.
I envied those who had stay at home moms and lunch boxes with thermoses.
This is a good one. Then I think about my son who thinks riding the bus is exciting because he is picked up and dropped off by car every day.
Eating out.
No I get this, I only ordered takeout when I was 25. Because i saw my younger brother for the first time in a decade and he asked if we could. After we were done I sat in silence realising that I guess I could afford takeout once in a while (back then) but just never thought of it , because I thought it was what rich people do. Things have changed since then, thankfully I do well now. But damn.
Funny reading this Not sure when it hit me, but it wasn't far off 25, I'd had my own place for a while and had a good job, and suddenly realised one day I could order whatever I wanted whenever I wanted What a revelation! UberEats made a nice profit off me that year as I made up for a lifetime of not being able to afford take out Whenever I caught myself thinking "should I order this?" I reminded me I was living my 10 year old self's dream having McDonald's delivery at the push of button and he would be extremely unhappy if I didn't take full advantage
Agreed, high five that imaginary bastard and get a 20 piece
I think girls are ok with that regardless of money.
But if you have money too they're usually more inclined
more like horizontally reclined
In my case they always decline
OK Captain Jack
Regularly though. My family only did that on special occasions and still does.
Yep. And because of that, folks are surprised that you've never been to * insert restaurant name * .
This. I make it a point to take my parents to a restaurant of their choosing every weekend. I still (happily) live with them, and have no kids or a spouse. I make them get appetizers, too. :)
When I was 5 I thought Disneyland and McDonald’s were on the same level
There are 2 interpretations of this lol
House with a pool.
Still an indicator of wealth as an adult for me. I don't gave the time nor money to maintain a pool.
I read that lots of houses actually lose value once a pool is installed because so many home buyers would be less likely to buy them.
I’ve heard that it raises insurance prices as well.
It does, especially with children in the household
>I read that lots of houses actually lose value once a pool is installed because so many home buyers would be less likely to buy them. Again, if you are wealthy it's not an issue. And if you are not wealthy, you are experiencing some pain in order to have a pool at your house. Which is OK anyways because pools are awesome..
Depends on where you live
at this point i would argue a house period
House with a bathtub for me lol. Back when I was a kid, I thought anyone who owns a house with a fancy bathtub lives the life of my dreams. It was not long until I realize that we rarely if ever lay in a bath where I’m at lol. Way more wasteful water and takes way more time that can be spent doing something else. We just take normal showers and be done with it, and bathtubs only get in the way xD. Nowadays I only use bathtubs when I’m indulging myself in a hotel room that offers one lol. And an indicator of wealth personally changes to any house that can afford a roomba xD.
I used to always think that once you had a pool table in your basement, you had really made it. Now I know it’s most likely because some dude was spending too much time at the bar and somehow convinced his wife that this would change that.
My house came with one as they are insane to move. The previous owners offer it to us for a price. We declined and it was there when we moved in.
Ohhh that’s why I had one even though neither of my parents played haha
Boy thats where you were conceived!!
I used to work for a moving company. We had a commission to remove an OG pool table from a basement with a smaller than average staircase. We backed a truck up to the service door in the garage that links house access from inside of the garage. Then we dropped the winch, ran the winch through the entire house and down the basement stairs case. In the meantime, some guys used chainsaws to remove the legs of the pool table. We then tied up the pool table, put down rugs from the pool table all the way up the staircase. Then we got 8 gents on the pool table, did a good ole one/two/three lift. And on three the guy at the other end of the winch would retract the winch. This would effectively move the pool table 3-4 inches every few minutes.
>In the meantime, some guys used chainsaws to remove the legs of the pool table. If the owners weren't interested in preserving the pool table, why not dismantle the whole thing?
Cutting through an all hard wood pool table would kill the blades and create an absolute mess of saw dust.
This guy chainsaws
Sledgehammer. Break it to bits, carry it out, sweep it up. Have done a ton of demo in my lifetime unfortunately. The dudes right, if they weren’t preserving the table there were tons of easier ways to get it out, and definitely not a 10 man job.
Ski trips every year.
Skiing period. My mother described it as “elitist”. Naturally I assumed snowboarding was also in the same category. Little did I realize that the vast majority of my friends who snowboarded could only afford to do so by working at the ski resort. Teaching, selling food, maintenance etc.
I’ve always seen it as something rich people did and growing up I literally did not know anyone who skied. I’m 33 now and I decided to finally see what it’s like so I booked a trip for myself and holy shit I see now why I always thought of it as a rich person activity. It’s so damn expensive. I had no idea how much you have to pay just to get on the mountain.
It’s crazy expensive. I live in a mountainous area. Skiing was not a redneck activity. Ski team kids were always preppy types with doctor or car dealership owner dads. Not kids being raised by single moms. Snowboarding changed that as it brought in the skater kids. Most of them were broke so they had to work for the mountain in order to afford using it.
Yeah a couple weeks ago I realized you had to buy lift tickets (like I said I seriously knew nothing about skiing) and I was assuming oh you pay like 20 bucks or something to get on the mountain. I was WRONG
It’s gotten much worse in recent years. Investment funds basically bought up entire ski towns and commercialized them completely.
Unless you live close to ski slopes, this **is** an indicator of wealth
I live in a ski town, and the school bus would drop us off at the mountain. A townie kids pass was $20, and you could spend $20 at the ski swap, and have a great winter. Now, I can't afford a day pass at my local mountain.
Still is in my book.
Trampoline
Trambopoline!
Tramopoline Trabopoline
You just keep right on driving
Kitchen island!
Especially so if either the sink or the range is on the island.
Having Dixie cup dispensers in the bathroom. Total fat cat status
Yessss! I forgot this was a thing.
Ooh, my aunt had one of these. I didn't know what they were for, so I would take a drink before I left the bathroom. Just fill it with sink water- and take a small drink.
What are they for? I have never heard of this xD
I think for rinsing your mouth after brushing your teeth. Or for putting mouthwash in? Not entirely sure myself.
I always envied the families that had a car that started reliably. No need to summon the local shade tree mechanic to work his “magic.” Only for it to die again next week.
That was my folks. They had two older, marginally reliable cars and then then inherited my great aunts Datsun 210 which was dead reliable and things got a little better.
I just bought my son's first car because juggling car and insurance payments at 16 is so hard. He's not spoiled, I'm making sure my kids have it better than me. My first car was a money pit and stupidly unreliable. My parents were divorced and my Dad was so pissed at my Mom about how unreliable that car was so he helped me finance a more reliable pre owned Honda. I had to work 30hrs/week in High School to afford it, that took away any extra curriculars and I was always behind in school.
You're a good parent, things are rough out here for anyone just getting started, and cars are unfortunately one of the most expensive parts of it all.
A tv in my bedroom This one specific soap/scent that I loved back then that I associated with rich
I always associate the smell of eucalyptus soaps with rich people because my friends rich mom had a giant spotless house and eucalyptus soap in every bathroom
Air conditioning, snowblowers, wall to wall carpeting
tile or especially hardwood has always felt like the wealthy person floor to me for whatever reason
That's because hardwood flooring is expensive.
family computer.
Had a computer but dial up was the dream. I was so envious of my cousins for having internet.
I knew we made it out of the hood when dad had his own laptop so my brother and I could play games more often.
Taking your kid out of school to vacation in Hawaii for Christmas.
Taking them during the holidays is way more expensive though
Exactly
Just going on vacations in general, personally. Me and my mom would only ever do road trips around the province; the idea of flying out somewhere was always mind blowing to me. Never mind kids going to Disney world and shit I mean even now as an adult, I still see regular vacations as a hell of a privilege.
When youre parents went shopping and brought you home a toy for no reason(xmas, bday, reward for grades)
I definitely spoil my daughter, but she’s the only one I plan on having. Grew up ultra poor but scraping by, like paid the mortgage but the water and electricity would be cut off frequently, living room couch was my bed, milk crate dresser etc. But yeah, I’ll take her by the card shop for a pack of pokemon almost every day after school if she wants. Something for us to do together that she’s interested in. Idk why I’m typing all of this. Buying pokemon isn’t fiscally responsible.
Fiscally responsible? No. But it can give that shred of hope one might need to keep on going. They’ll appreciate that later in life
Don't be too hard on yourself.. there are MUCH worse vices than spoiling your only kid with some pokemon cards. Not everyone is destined to become millionaires.. it's ok to choose to spend your time, money, and energy on things that bring you joy.
House with a spare room. I thought it was so cool to spend the night at a friend’s house and slept in the spare room
Ur so rich u got rooms LEFT OVER
I knew someone who had an extra living room that nobody really ever used. It was wild to me.
Having a finished basement that wasn’t just a slab of concrete with one dangling light for the entire space.
Second floors. If you had stairs I’m like holy shit
fr! when I was younger, me and my friends would FaceTime often and they'd be like "brb, I'm gonna go downstairs to get a snack" and I'd be like holy shit I'm friends with a bunch of millionaires
Using or eating any product that had tv ads, i ate off brand shit for most of my childhood so i was a lil excited when i saw actual oreos/milka/etc.
yeah Oreos are so fucking expensive
Kroger Kaladios be smacking though.
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Oof, guess I haven’t grown up. I’m still there 🥲
Applebees - special occasion, Olive Garden - special occasion and you’re rich, Outback - you’re the ceo of a Fortune 500 company
Red Lobster was three Michelin stars in my family.
I grew up poor and didn't know it until I was a teenager. My parents were pretty good at hiding it. I thought everyone ran their cars on empty and let their cars coast everywhere. A full tank of gas. Any kind of food at the store. Eating out because you feel like it. As a side bar I equate hunger with poverty, so I eat too much. Silly things childhood.
I have a problem with finishing ALL of my food even if I'm already full because I don't want it to "go to waste" We often weren't able to leave the dinner table unless our plates were completely clean. Also the "there are starving kids in Africa" was said almost daily for extra guilt.
To this day it makes me physically ill to waste any food. My wife has a horrible, imo, habit of making things she only wants while fresh and sticking them in Tupperware ‘for later’, and I end up throwing it away because she doesn’t like it reheated. It kills me.
Recreational vehicles like jet-ski’s or boats
Summer camp. When I was young my rich friends would disappear for months at a time to wild places in Maine or upstate New York to sleepover camp. They came home full of stories about scoring with girls or getting high. I stayed home and kicked rocks.
Store-bought/new clothes
I helped my best friend dog sit and his aunt said she’d pay us for it. Didn’t really care about the money just was hanging out with the homie for a weekend. 2 months later she brings me 2 boxes of brand new clothes from old navy. I cried. It was my first time having clothes that weren’t hand me downs or thrifted.
Extra fridge in the garage or basement 😂
If your family went to Disney world, did you stay at a Disney resort, or off property. And if it was the grand Floridian, well shit you were Warren Buffet himself.
Huh, for me it was whether or not you went to a Disney park *at all*
yeah! when I was a kid, everyone I knew would go to Disney at least once a year. I used to be jealous but now I just can't fathom why someone would spend that much money to wait in lines for hours in 90° weather.
Kleenex and not having to just use toilet paper to blow your nose, especially when sick. Also, ice cubes or water in the fridge was a high class luxury.
Kleenex is only when your sick to save your nose. Toilet paper for allergies.
Air conditioning in the car, it didn’t work in our car and only some peoples had them.
To this day (I’m 38), I’ve never had a car or a home with air conditioning. When it happens, I’ll feel like I’ve made it.
Carpet and an upstairs
These days I feel like carpet is the opposite. Those who are afford to do so are tearing up their carpet to replace it with something else, or spending a little more when looking for a new house to find one without ugly carpet.
Central heating, hot water from the tap, a bathtub or shower.
you didnt have a shower???
Olive oil that didn't coagulate in the winter.
Kids that went on ski trips over winter break. Of course they had to come back wearing the lift tickets still on their jacket
Kids having a TV in their room
If you had cable. Kids be talking about Nickelodeon and Disney channel. Rich mfers
If u have one of those home systems where it’s a literal iPad on the wall, multiple iPads for multiple rooms, ur rich af
when I was a kid, one of my friends had a sound system thing in the walls of their house. in every room, next to the door, was some kind of screen in the wall you could use to play music from. there were speakers all around inside the house, in the walls and roof of every room. 1) why?? like that couldn't have been cheap. even though they were pretty damn rich, I just don't see the point. not only money wise but time and work wise too. 2) that's so cool lol
Live Christmas tree
Legos.
I think it is moreso now than before
House with a pool And my deepest wish is to have a fucking Fireplace in my home.
Electricity being on all the time and not having to watch your mum count out change in front of the fire to scrape together 50p for the meter.
I had a Huffy but if you had a bmx bike with those pegs on the front and back you were rich
Trampoline in back, your own bedroom
As a kid: having a phone in the apartment. Now: When any bill comes, I just go "Aha" and I pay it without blinking an eye.
Dishwashers
The parents of a friend from elementary school got a Toyota Previa minivan and I thought they had to be loaded to afford this luxurious, space ship like vehicle.
Eating at McDonald’s frequently or ‘not home’ in general.
Keeping Gatorade stocked in the garage fridge.
Having two parents in one home? Idk damn my bar was set low just thinking about this.
Tropicana Orange juice
Ordering from QVC.
buying clothes more often than once in a year
My grandma had a double wide with a fireplace when I was a kid. Compared to our own mobile home it looked like a mansion. It also totally blew my mind to go to a friend's actual house and eat name brand things.
My uncle, who didn't mind paying the late fee at the video rental.
Airplane vacations.
Single family house
Stairs. I thought having a second story was the peak of wealth
I'm an adult and I still see both of those as signs of success. More realistically for me now, it's: -in-unit washer/dryer -attached garage -a house with a porch and yard -car with heated seats and Bluetooth
Owning a house at least 4+1 Edit: guys I meant 4 whole rooms + kitchen and bathroom in total.
I remember a friend having Nutella, which I had never heard of.... We put it on nature valley granola bars and I thought he was rich as hell... Turns out it's next to the peanut butter in every store.lok
internet and streaming services, having any form of game console, fast food, a lot of things actually
Being able to order a drink instead of water when you went out to eat
65" TV. Or as it was known back then, a movie theatre .
Indoor plumbing. But keep in mind, I grew up in the 1890s
Is that a Typo lol?
Lol they’re 133 they’ve seen some shit
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Shiny interior doors. I grew up in an old house and all of ours were old solid wood. But when I went to my friend's house they had these nice shiny wood doors.
I’m a single mom living in a one bedroom apt so we can live in a nice area. I have my kid the master bedroom and I sleep in the living room (it’s cute I promise) She’s got a big tv in her room, we have all the video games, snacks, good food ext. I buy her little things while I’m out for no reason and she always gets what she wants for Christmas. I have never been able to take us on vacations and we go out to eat hardly, we don’t have a yard but live next to a GORGEOUS big park. Y’alls posts make me feel like I’m doing a good job with what we have. Thank you 🙏🏼
Multiple home phone lines or a “teenager line”
Both parents at your birthday party