Kate Hackett
It can be very difficult for people to open up and share their experience with childhood poverty. There’s no shame in being poor but the world is a rough place and a lot of people grow up feeling that it is shameful and wrong.
The BuzzFeed Community recently shared some stories about the “moment from their childhood when they realized they were poor.” It’s really eye-opening.
1. No cartoons
“We never had any other kids cartoon channels other than PBS KIDS. My friends now talk about how much they loved watching SpongeBob SquarePants and Steven Universe, and I’ve never seen those shows.”
2. Belly shirts
“During third grade when I got sent home because my shirts kept showing my belly. My mom couldn’t afford to buy new clothes when I grew. The teacher was always super rude about it too and acted like I was a harlot and would call me out in front of the entire class to shame me.”
3. Popsicles
“I realized I was poor when my friend had Mickey Mouse popsicles after my mom had told us that they were only for the super-rich. My friend’s family wasn’t all that more well-off. It was then that I realized that it was a luxury to have a name-brand thing from the grocery store when you are poor.”
anonymous
4. One car
“We only had one car when I was growing up. I remember while it was getting repaired, my dad dropped me off at a friend’s home in the courtesy car from the mechanic. I still cringe to this day, because my friend’s mom said, ‘Oh, your parents can finally afford another car.'”
anonymous
5. Payless shoes
“For me, it was my shoes coming from Payless. Some kids just knew that my shoes were cheap Payless knock-offs, and mocked me for it.”
6. I was the angel tree kid
“I realized my family was poor when I discovered that I was the ‘Angel Tree’ kid that the class was collecting holiday gifts for.”
anonymous
7. Sweats and shorts
“My parents would buy me sweatpants for the winter and then cut them into shorts for the summer. They were my only type of clothing I had until I got out on my own.”
anonymous
8. Free lunch
“When I was 13 and had to go to the school office to get my free lunch ticket.”
anonymous
9. Donations
“When I was in elementary school, there was a food/can drive going on, and I asked my mom if I could bring cans in to donate. I didn’t realize the white label cans were government food that were donated to us already. We were who the drives were for basically, and it was a weird realization.”
10. Can’t get warm
“The winter nights when I couldn’t get warm. My single mother didn’t want to turn on the heat, or the utilities were turned off, and there just weren’t enough blankets. I put on my winter coat. It wasn’t enough. I lost a lot of sleep.”
anonymous
11. Water cereal
“Having cereal with water because we couldn’t afford milk.”
anonymous
12. Burger King
“When I was 12, a friend’s dad took me and her to Burger King for lunch. I’d never been in a fast-food restaurant although I grew up in an inner city surrounded by them. I didn’t even know how to order, let alone how he could afford to splurge on us like that! In that moment I realized that plain pasta or salted popcorn were not what most people ate for all meals.”
anonymous
13. No vacations
”When I was younger, most of my classmates would talk about going to Disney World or other places they’d visit during the summer. The teacher would always ask the students to have a big presentation about the cultures that they experienced or the adventures they had, when it hit me that I’ve spent the last four of my summers stuck at home because my parents worked all the time. Apparently we’d been living paycheck to paycheck and had no savings.”
anonymous
14. Betamax
“I had a Fluppy Dogs tape I was so excited to share with my friend when I was playing at her house one day, but I had a Betamax tape, and her family had a VCR. So we asked her parents how to play it and they said, ‘Who still uses a Betamax?!'”
anonymous
15. Same jeans
“When I came to school every day in the same pair of jeans and another girl figured it out. She yelled out how poor my mom was. I still think about that.”
16. Not fancy
“When I was 6 or 7, my family went out to celebrate. We dressed in our nicest clothes to go to the restaurant, and for years afterward I thought that had to be one of the fanciest restaurants ever…it was a Bakers Square. 😑”
17. Sharing rooms
“When I realized that not all children shared a bedroom with their mom. I finally got my own bedroom when I was 15 years old.”
anonymous
18. Hand made costumes
“We had amazing Halloween costumes…all hand-made by my mom — full-length vampire cape, Winter Barbie replica dresses, a pumpkin costume stuffed with newspaper — but it wasn’t until my brother wanted the Spider-Man costume with the plastic mask from the store that I realized we were poor.”
anonymous
19. Mom went without
While growing up I never lacked anything that I needed, whether it was clothes, food, or a roof. But I noticed little things that my mom would do. She would eat Saltines for dinner while we kids ate healthy food, she wore clothes that had holes and didn’t quite fit, and she never had any nice things.”
anonymous
20. Drinking cups
“When I realized all of our drinking glasses were really just Prego spaghetti sauce jars.”
anonymous
