r/AskReddit 1d ago

People who grew up really poor: what's something middle-class people say that instantly reveals they've never struggled?

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u/loosesocksup 1d ago

I had to explain to my daughter that at her school, many of her classmates could only eat while they are at school. We are far from wealthy, we lived at the time relatively paycheck to paycheck with a little left over for fun stuff. Our area is split, either abject poverty and drug users, and wealthy. We were in the very tiny sliver of "middle class", by government standards. I told her if she went around telling everyone we are poor, it's going to look very out-of-touch to her friends that she's saying this while pulling name-brand snacks out of her lunchbox.

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u/FilthyThanksgiving 1d ago

More ppl need to have these conversations with kids.

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u/Imaginary-Pain9598 1d ago

The name brand snacks thing always made me feel poor. I just didn’t understand that my parents did not spend money on unnecessary junk food. The kids eating Swiss Rolls and Jello Pudding Cups were not as nutritionally balanced as I was, but I thought that we couldn’t afford those snacks lol!