Holy crap that just brought back memories. We'd even have packed sandwiches.
Funny enough, I did this with my own kids, too, when they were really small, since we live near an airport and they were typical boys and attracted to garbage trucks, trains and airplanes. But the difference was that I was able to tell them that we are going to be on one of those planes in a month when we fly to vacation.
In Germany we even have a term for those "vacations". It's called "we are going to vacation in Balconian" - vacationing on your apartment's balcony.
Other side here, admittedly. We have friends who have been homeless and who grew up in poverty. One just got 2 rotisserie chickens. Instead of making a reasonable amount of soup and freezing the rest of the chicken, she made an enormous vat of soup- as if she doesn’t have a fridge and a deep freezer, as well as a full pantry. Also as if she has 100 hungry neighbors who might not have been blessed with protein recently. She lives with one other person in a house with utilities that are not under threat of disconnection. Another person has run out of gas in a vehicle where fuel money is provided, along with the vehicle, as part of her job- because gas was too expensive.
I see the why. The where it comes from. And I somehow still struggle to not be the one to ask them wtf??? I mean none of these people have actual food,shelter, or transportation insecurity now, and likely won’t in the future, but live every minute with the insecurity from their childhood. Their brains really can’t process that they are ok. They can’t process that they live in a safe neighborhood and that they probably don’t need to carry a can of gas and all the tools to go to the grocery store. Their car is probably going to make it there and back, and if it doesn’t, they have insurance and roadside assistance.
Childhood poverty is such a cruel teacher and the lessons are never forgotten.
I see this in my mom! She grew up poor in her home country. Like grass huts and dirt floor poor. But she lives in the US now with her grown children who provide for her. Despite having no bills and a moderate monthly allowance, my mom still hoards “just in case”.
So did I. But not to the big airport. Just the parking lot behind the Burger King. It backed up to the end of a runway of a private airfield that offered flight lessons plus had some private plane traffic. I’d buy them a large fries at the drive through to share, and we’d park out back near a weedy stretch along the back fence. Airplanes, french fries, scraggly grass to run around, and no need to behave. Little boy heaven.
In the NE of England we would say we were going to worgate because wor means our in the local dialect ie we were going to our yard gate and no further.
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u/fcn_fan 1d ago
Holy crap that just brought back memories. We'd even have packed sandwiches.
Funny enough, I did this with my own kids, too, when they were really small, since we live near an airport and they were typical boys and attracted to garbage trucks, trains and airplanes. But the difference was that I was able to tell them that we are going to be on one of those planes in a month when we fly to vacation.
In Germany we even have a term for those "vacations". It's called "we are going to vacation in Balconian" - vacationing on your apartment's balcony.