Did you grow up in a rich or a poor house?

[reecejackox]

I would say somewhere in between rich and poor , not overly rich but no overly poor.

[Nicky91]

in middle i guess, not rich but also not very poor


from my mom's side i have a bit of a successful relative (he's no longer among us) and someone famous (also no longer among us)


Cor Dillen, one uncle of my mom he was a powerful businessman for Philips, introduced color television for first time to South America

Coen Dillen, another uncle of my mom, he was a top goalscoring footballer for PSV Eindhoven and Brabantia (one of our formerly famous local football teams) he has the record in dutch competition most goals (43) in one season

[SherzyK]

http://38.media.tumblr.com/fcbe302ab4fb736b094662b42dbc7785/tumblr_nchbyqe7Jm1seznd4o1_r1_500.gif

[Livia]

I was born working class, my Mum was in the rag trade and my Dad was a soldier, then a paramedic. It didn't occur to my brother and I that there wasn't much money around, we thought we were rich. My parents took us to loads of places, when I look back they were places that didn't cost much, but we loved it. I can honestly say i wouldn't change one moment of my childhood.

[Nicky91]

I was born working class, my Mum was in the rag trade and my Dad was a soldier, then a paramedic. It didn't occur to my brother and I that there wasn't much money around, we thought we were rich. My parents took us to loads of places, when I look back they were places that didn't cost much, but we loved it. I can honestly say i wouldn't change one moment of my childhood.

oh wow, that sounds like one good fun and loving childhood Livia xx

[Livia]

oh wow, that sounds like one good fun and loving childhood Livia xx

It was Nicky, and all my family lived in the same street in east London, grandparents, aunties and uncles, cousins... it was like a village. I was very lucky.

[Tony Montana]

In the middle.

Wish I grew up filthy rich tho :bawling:

[Nicky91]

It was Nicky, and all my family lived in the same street in east London, grandparents, aunties and uncles, cousins... it was like a village. I was very lucky.

same for me, i might not have had many friends in my childhood, but i had a very happy fun childhood

i Always had a thing for gardening, even when i was a small kid, 5 or 6 yrs old, already helping my family put new plants in the ground, or clean the soil around from any weeds

also with a Nintendo 64, i had goldeneye, i did play multiplayer with either my dad or my nan

or Disney tetris which also was fun :love: my dad also was really loving that game, wanting to get the highest score everytime lol

[Cal.]

Just working class really. My dads a baker and my mams a nurse.

Wouldn’t change my family set up for the world though. I know rich people with incredibly unhappy family lives for instance.

[Kazanne]

Started off really poor, my dad was a soldier,i didn't know my mom she took off when I was about 3/4 have a few vague memories of her but nothing much,my dad re-married ,my step mom adopted my brother and I and from there on in I think we were quite well off,we owned our own house,had nice clothes,plenty to eat, holidays,great Christmasses,so I think were quite well off,my step mom is a gem could not wish for a better mom,and nana, Dads passed away now,but all in all apart from those early days I think I had a great childhood.

[Livia]

same for me, i might not have had many friends in my childhood, but i had a very happy fun childhood

i Always had a thing for gardening, even when i was a small kid, 5 or 6 yrs old, already helping my family put new plants in the ground, or clean the soil around from any weeds

also with a Nintendo 64, i had goldeneye, i did play multiplayer with either my dad or my nan

or Disney tetris which also was fun :love: my dad also was really loving that game, wanting to get the highest score everytime lol

That all sounds like fun, Nicky. I didn't have loads of friends either, I was a pretty solitary child, books were my thing, I was a great reader.

My Dad was always murder to play games with. If I ever beat him, I beat him fair and square because he'd never give us an easy ride because we were kids. I remember beating him at chess once. And only once!

[Marsh.]

Really poor. We could only afford the one maid and she was never quick enough.

[Crimson Dynamo]

I was dragged up in the mean streets of East Kilbride near Glasgow, amid street gangs like the Tongs, Cumbie, Toi and Fleeto. You had to have your wits about you are you would get slashed by a razor :worry:

Course me mam and dad were middle class luminaries of the local Light Opera Society so i never got that involved as i was at Sunday School and Scouts and 7 nights of Oaklahoma as they could never geta babysitter :angel:

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/15/9f/ec/159feccb93c73ddea7264689bbbfa352.jpghttp://triangleartsandentertainment.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/OklahomaPHOTO1-TempleTheatre2014.jpg

[bots]

I was dragged up in the mean streets of East Kilbride near Glasgow, amid street gangs like the Tongs, Cumbie, Toi and Fleeto. You had to have your wits about you are you would get slashed by a razor :worry:

Course me mam and dad were middle class luminaries of the local Light Opera Society so i never got that involved as i was at Sunday School and Scouts and 7 nights of Oaklahoma as they could never geta babysitter :angel:

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/15/9f/ec/159feccb93c73ddea7264689bbbfa352.jpghttp://triangleartsandentertainment.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/OklahomaPHOTO1-TempleTheatre2014.jpg

ahh polo mint city :laugh:

i had several run ins with the cumbie :fist:

[Crimson Dynamo]

ahh polo mint city :laugh:

i had several run ins with the cumbie :fist:

It was all the talk of the 70s a a kid in EK

"big fight down at the park tonight between the Cumbie and The Baltic Fleet" :worry:

It was that or throwing stones at the Catholic School pupils at lunchtime

:joker:

[Livia]

I once had a fleeting romance with a guy from Coatbridge..... I refuse to believe East Kilbride was worse...

[user104658]

Firmly middle-income although my dad was ABYSMAL with money (always has been, I assume always will be...) and so when my mum went off the deep end when I was in my teens (alcoholism), we ended up in a bizarre situation where we lived in a lovely house where absolutely everything was bloody broken and "too expensive to fix" even though the household income was more than double what mine is now :umm2:. At one point the tap on the bath was broken and we had to run baths with a hose from the bathroom sink. FOR TWO YEARS! And my dad always had crappy cars that broke down constantly, but then would shell out like £400 constantly on impulse buys like sound systems and various "fad" tech like DVD recorders (not the kind in a computer - attached to the TV to replace VCR! I literally don't know ANYONE else who ever had one of these and it cost hundreds of pounds... and was useless...). Likewise, we always had plenty of good quality / expensive food in the fridge, but the kitchen cupboards were falling off the hinges and you had to manually drain the dishwasher at the end with a bucket.

They both still worked and the income was the same as ever but my mum was the one who spent money on practical things (like household repairs) and she basically just stopped caring and spent the vast majority of her time in her bedroom when not at work...

It was a confusing time :think:.

[Livia]

That's crazy and mixed up, TS. I didn't know anyone with a dishwasher when I was a kid, even a broken one. Do you have a good relationship with your parents now? Is that too personal...?

[user104658]

That's crazy and mixed up, TS. I didn't know anyone with a dishwasher when I was a kid, even a broken one.

Exactly! We had a dishwasher when I was 6 - so that's 1991. No one I knew had one, they were extortionate and cost a fortune to run, but it was "A New Thing!" so that meant my dad had to buy one :think:.
Do you have a good relationship with your parents now? Is that too personal...?
They separated when I was 18 and that was even stranger, as my mum lost her career and was on disability, living in a pretty rough area and my dad lived in a brand new bachelor flat kitted out with gadgets because he was a 50 year old man with a good income living like a teenager :joker:. So I bounced back and forward twice a week between a grotty council flat at the weekends (all my friends still lived around where my mum was) and a kitted out flat during the week (...because it was just a nicer place to live...) until I moved away for Uni.

My mum died (liver failure; it never got better) 5 years ago. I get on fine with my dad. He semi-retired at 55, moved into a literal granny-flat where he planned to live out his days, THEN he met a woman 4 years older than me and now they're married and live in a very nice, well maintained house that she bought them with her divorce money from her first marriage :umm2: and they live off HER middle-income and his pension... he blatantly just needs someone to take care of him when it comes to practical stuff. But she's young so when he's properly elderly, he's her problem now! :unsure:


I swear I had THE most vanilla childhood up until I was about 12 and then it went full on soap opera :laugh:.

[Livia]

Bloody hell... that does read like a screenplay. And you turned out reasonably normal. I mean, how??

[Underscore]

in the middle when I was born then we got rich

used to go on one holiday a year until I was about 10 mainly to Greece/Spain etc then we started going on around 2 family holidays per year to more exotic places such as the Caribbean. I don't know where it all switched

[AnnieK]

Up till the age of 11 we seemed loaded. I went to primary school in a rough area where most people were on benefits and had loads of kids but we were the typical 2.4 kid family, mum and dad worked, had a mortgage, we had a car, went on holidays (always in the UK but the best holidays), we went to Alton Towers and Blackpool at least once a year etc etc and I thought we were proper rich.

Then, I got a scholarship at a Grammar School and realised just how not rich we were. Some of the kids I went to school with were obscenely well off.

Loved my childhood and the only thing I would have changed is my brother for a sister :laugh:

[Alf]

I've never had two Ha'pennies to rub together, I've always been on the bones of me arse!

[user104658]

And you turned out reasonably normal. I mean, how??

:umm2: Did I...? :hehe:

In all seriousness though, I barely left my room from about age 12 - 15 other than for school, and then when I discovered "socialising" I went from "always in my room" to "always in my room, or out of the house". I didn't spend any time at all with my family and tbh I still have some hermit-tendencies to this day... I need a decent amount of time on my own to keep my head straight, because I spend my entire early teens more-or-less alone. I was also absolutely abysmal at interpersonal relationships when I met my wife and it took her years to knock me into shape :laugh:. I'm still a work in progress :think:.

[Wizard.]

Unemployed single mother so... extremely poor! Although I never felt poor, it wasn't until I grew up that I realised we were.

[user104658]

Up till the age of 11 we seemed loaded. I went to primary school in a rough area where most people were on benefits and had loads of kids but we were the typical 2.4 kid family, mum and dad worked, had a mortgage, we had a car, went on holidays (always in the UK but the best holidays), we went to Alton Towers and Blackpool at least once a year etc etc and I thought we were proper rich.

Then, I got a scholarship at a Grammar School and realised just how not rich we were. Some of the kids I went to school with were obscenely well off.

This sounds like my 9 year old; she has absolutely no concept of the fact that we aren't "rich folks" because she always has nice new clothes, we go on holiday a lot, always have the new games console / ridiculously expensive gaming PCs etc. (not that I inherited any tendencies from my dad :umm2: ) ... but then she doesn't understand at all why we can't just send her to the local private highschool that some of her friends will be going to after primary, and that £18,000-a-year school fees are ... not within our price range ... when it's not an issue for some of her friends.

(thankfully) our own household income has tripled or more since my eldest was born and is still increasing year-on-year somehow, and touch wood. She doesn't believe me when I tell her that I was pushing her in her buggy 2 miles to town, in the rain, with holes in my shoes when she was 1 :hmph:. Though I think everyone should be poor for a little while... I'll never forget not being able to run a car, or the blood-chilling panic of getting a measly £80 gas bill on the mat. That was enough to send me into a full on panic and now (****ing shamefully to be honest) we're in a position to have spent £80 on Starbucks in the space of 10 days :umm2:. So I guess maybe I learned nothing from having no money as I clearly go through it like water now :think:. Err...

[Crimson Dynamo]

what you need is a good death every now and then. The TL's mum died recently and she made a few quid and now she has a nice 3 story town house to flog

:hee:

meanwhile my old Mum is still grimly hanging on :oh:

[Nicky91]

what you need is a good death every now and then. The TL's mum died recently and she made a few quid and now she has a nice 3 story town house to flog

:hee:

meanwhile my old Mum is still grimly hanging on :oh:

this is quite rude LT D:

[user104658]

what you need is a good death every now and then. The TL's mum died recently and she made a few quid and now she has a nice 3 story town house to flog

:hee:

meanwhile my old Mum is still grimly hanging on :oh:

I mean despite my mum being poor latterly, she died relatively young (60) and thus left behind some pension pot that was split between me and my sister. We got just over £30k each and it evaporated in less than a year. Floated away on a gentle breeze :joker:. So I guess it depends. But I loosely agree; a friend of mine's Grandfather-in-law left his wife a 6-figure sum so now they're in their early 30's, with a nice house and no mortgage :fist:.

[Crimson Dynamo]

this is quite rude lt d:

have you met my mother?

[Cal.]

When I die nobody is having my things

[user104658]

have you met my mother?

He built a time machine in his basement and impregnated her LT :omgno:.

[Liam-]

We weren’t poor, but we weren’t anywhere close to being well off either, both parents worked full time, always went on days out, had multiple camping/caravan holidays every year, budgets didn’t stretch to anything abroad, but it didn’t need to, we had great times with what we could afford, plus, I was the youngest of four with a gap of 10 years between me and the eldest so by the time I got to the age of properly wanting or needing anything, I pretty much had 5 people spoiling me cause I was dead cute :hee:

[Nicky91]

have you met my mother?

i wasn't calling that bit rude though, the thing you said before to TS about his mom dying, i called that rude from you

[Crimson Dynamo]

i wasn't calling that bit rude though, the thing you said before to TS about his mom dying, i called that rude from you

go re read it again

[Daniel-X]

Used to be quite rich when I was really young as my dad had his own plastering business and my mum is a social worker, but then they divorced and my dad passed in 2010. We’re probably ‘lower-middle class’ never hard for money but not insanely rich either.

[Marsh.]

Neither really. We got by and never went without.

Me and my sister brought up by a single mum who worked all the hours she could.

Wouldn't change anything really.

[JerseyWins]

Definitely middle

[BBDodge]

2 1/2 years in an upstairs flat with Mum, Dad & elder sister
5 1/2 years in a 3 bedroom semi with Mum, Dad, elder sister & younger brother
10 years in a 4 bedroom detached with Mum, Dad, 2 sisters & brother

Wouldn't describe any of them as poor or rich but they got better over the years.

[Cherie]

We owned our own home and farm but we were pretty poor financially as payments were quarterly or something ridiculous like that, but we didn't stave although I do remember having holes in my shoes once

[user104658]

Neither really. We got by and never went without.

Me and my sister brought up by a single mum who worked all the hours she could.

Wouldn't change anything really.

What about the crippling Father Complex that makes you incessantly hunger for dick? :think:

[Jason.]

Neither. We were working class but comfortable.

My parents don't even own a house so my older brother/sister and I (we're the ones with good paying jobs) still give my mum some money each month to help with rent/bills even though we don't live there.

[Marsh.]

What about the crippling Father Complex that makes you incessantly hunger for dick? :think:

I tried it once and didn't like it. :idc:

[Marsh.]

Neither. We were working class but comfortable.

My parents don't even own a house so my older brother/sister and I (we're the ones with good paying jobs) still give my mum some money each month to help with rent/bills even though we don't live there.

This is lovely.

[smudgie]

We had a beautiful house, gardener, nanny etc.
But my dad was a gambler, so we could go hungry at times.
School fees could go unpaid etc, not good really.
Parents got divorced, dad went back to live with my Nanna and sorted himself out.
Hubby and I started off with big mortgage and 2 little mouths to feed.
Took the kids all over, bought a cheap second..or even third hand caravan and had great holidays in the country.
Hubby worked very hard very long hours, kids had enough, they had a happy childhood so I consider ourselves rich from that point of view.

[armand.kay]

When I die nobody is having my things

then the government gets them luv

[Marsh.]

Yeah, that thing I've mentioned.... twice in my 11 years on the forum. Oh dear, someone has an obsession.

Put your drink down, eh! :thumbs:

[montblanc]

what you need is a good death every now and then. The TL's mum died recently and she made a few quid and now she has a nice 3 story town house to flog

:hee:

meanwhile my old Mum is still grimly hanging on :oh:

oh my goodness :skull::skull:

[LaLaLand]

"Average" I guess but more on the poor side knowing what I know now. Me and my sister didn't suspect a thing though, great childhood.

Everyone was the same though around here if their parents worked in the local factory that shut. TBH there was only one family I knew our of everyone who seemed "rich" actually (first ones to get a home PC, gadgets, branded clothes, annual holidays abroad etc), everyone else was just regular, wore clothes off the market and holidayed in Rhyl. Amazing! :joker:

[Redway]

i wasn't calling that bit rude though, the thing you said before to TS about his mom dying, i called that rude from you

I’ve got a little inkling that LT’s being ironic Nicky.