When families don’t have enough money to buy the things they need, life can become challenging. If this happened when you were a child, you might not have fully understood the hardships your parents were facing. Nonetheless, growing up with limited financial resources affects everyone who experiences it. Even as adults, those who grew up in such circumstances often remember specific situations and childhood memories that have left a lasting impact.
1.
When someone left a basket of food at our door.
I knew we were poor, but I didn’t realize how poor until that moment.
I still remember that awful feeling, that other people feel pity for you.
2.
When I was a kid, our “dessert”
was a piece of white bread with margarine sprinkled with sugar. I thought it was the most delicious thing ever.
It wasn’t until junior high that I realized that’s a dessert for people with less money.
3.
I was 10 when I told my mom that I was hungry before going to bed. She said that she was too.
That’s when I realized she never even ate dinner.
There just wasn’t enough food.
4.
When my head teacher at my primary school gave me her daughter’s old uniform when I moved into secondary school.
5.
I was 12 when dad took us to a buffet but didn’t get anything, said he didn’t like pizza and that
he wasn’t hungry. I knew he loved the salad bar, but I believed him.
When I got my food, I offered him a slice and he ate it. One of the workers came up and told him he had to buy a buffet if he wanted to eat. I guess the people sitting at the table next to us overheard and a few minutes later the employee came up to us and told my dad that they had paid for his buffet.
He really enjoyed that salad bar. That’s the moment I realized we didn’t have all the money in the world and it’s not that he wasn’t hungry; he just didn’t want to “waste money” on himself.
6.
When my mom and I would often leave grocery stores without taking any of the groceries we had just spent a good deal of time collecting because the check she tried using wouldn’t work.
7.
When we donated canned goods to a food drive at school and received them back from the local food pantry that made sure we had food for Christmas.
8.
I realized later that when my parents took me to McDonald’s and watched me eat, it wasn’t because they weren’t hungry.
It’s because they could only afford one meal.
9.
When I had to eat rice with salt or rice with instant coffee because there is nothing else but that.
10.
I realized we were poor when I couldn’t afford to buy pads every month so I had to stretch one pack over two periods.
There are 16 pads in a pack, and my period lasts 7 days, so that means one pad per day.
11.
Scrounging coins from the laundry/cupholders to use for groceries after witnessing my father choking back tears as he explained why we couldn’t afford to go to the grocery store to me and my three younger siblings.
12.
When after every summer vacation, I never had anything to write/talk about in school because my family never went anywhere.
13.
When my new clothes were my dad’s old clothes that had been cut to fit me for my birthday. I was so happy to have clothes like my dad’s. But my mom was nearly in tears and I thought it was because she was happy that I was happy. It turned out she was ashamed that they couldn’t afford new clothes at the rate I was growing.
14.
My grandpa sent me 10 dollars for my birthday – my mom used it to pay the dentist who gave me a filling.
15.
When my mom cried in a grocery store because her credit card was declined trying to pay for a loaf of bread and one roll of cheap toilet paper.
16.
When I looked forward to the free school lunch, because that was the only thing I’d get to eat that day. Mom wouldn’t eat so I could and dad gave up his lunch because he felt bad eating when mom and I were hungry.
17.
Having photos of two consecutive birthdays on the same roll of film because getting it developed was so incredibly expensive that taking pictures was limited to only very special occasions.
18.
When I realized all of my friends and classmates had their own rooms and that it wasn’t normal to share a bedroom with your parents beyond elementary school.
19.
Having to fund my own way through college. I was always amazed when friends would tell me their parents paid for their tuition or their living expenses, etc.
20.
My grade 8 science teacher suggested I go to an engineering science summer camp. It cost about 250$.
Turns out my parents couldn’t afford it. When I told my teacher, she arranged for the school board to pay for me to go.
I go to the university that hosts the summer camp now.
21.
My mom cleaned houses and would sometimes take me with her. One day, she was admitted to the hospital, so my dad dropped me off to clean the house she was due to do. It was the home of a wealthy kid from my school. I was halfway through when the mother walked in, asking what was going on. I told her and she was gracious enough to let me finish the job and paid me, but I don’t recall us ever going there again.
22.
My parents split up when I was young. My dad had money, and my mom didn’t. The help she got was from neighbors and friends. My siblings and I stole money from my dad’s wallet and placed it in my mom’s purse so she could afford to buy groceries.