Clicky: Growing Up

jennuinne

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[Poll]

jennlin

i chose the red robin option..but i'm really in between that and hamburger helper

love the options.

therickson

We travelled a lot growing up but we had a strict budget for clothes/toys and had "earn it" if we wanted more/name brands. 

jennuinne

We started with government cheese when we were really little, moved up to basics and sharing McDonalds, then Red Robin by high school.  My parents moved a couple rungs up the ladder during our lifetime.

therickson

Oh and I had hand me downs... From my brother who was 2 feet taller than me until high school. I was just looking at pictures - not a good look

larzhope

This is a fun one! I love the options.  I answered hamburger helper, but really, my mom is JOB (just off the boat) from Italy so we had home cooked food every night.  The first time I had hamburger helper I was in college BUT we also only went out to eat for birthdays as we got older, so the Red Robin option didn't fit either.

I had hand-me downs from my cousin when I was younger, but then she moved to CA and I wore non-name brand clothes until I was 14 and got a job and could spend my money on what I wanted.

Ciaram22

I was raised by my grandparent's but we had generic brands but would go out to dinner at Red Robin. Actually grandma did 95% of the cooking and we only went out on special occasions.

Tygirljojo

It really varied, but I would say somewhere between hand-me-downs & generic.  My family moved A LOT and we were probably lower-middle income (I know when I was a toddler my parents had to get some help from a food bank sometimes) so a lot of my clothes came from Value Village & Goodwill.  When things got better, I was able to get new clothes from Ross & Fred Meyer.  But each time we would move, my parents always paid attention to the schools, so we typically were the poorest family in a nice neighborhood.

CatBus

I didn't realize how good I had it until recently. When the topic of childhood toys comes up, I always end up saying, "Oh yeah, I had that." Power Wheels Corvette, many Barbies, rollerblades, Teddy Ruxpin... and I did go to Disneyland many, many times as a child. I always thought we were normal until one day in fourth grade a random girl from another class came up to a friend (who lived in my neighborhood) and me and told us we lived in "the rich neighborhood."

Granted, this was Federal Way, so "rich" is relative. I know our HH gross income was somewhere around $150K in the mid-'90s. 

amandasw

SS - we weren't rich (by far), ate home cooked meals, had a modest amount of toys, but we did travel around the country and Europe.  My parents were just extremely careful budgeters. 

KST_

jennlin:

i chose the red robin option..but i'm really in between that and hamburger helper

love the options.

I chose hamburger helper, but was between that and Red Robin. I remember going to Red Robin for the first time in 6th grade, I was sooo impressed with the "gourmet hamburgers" and people made fun of me.

dreamwinds

I didn't know what to pick. 

We didn't do European vacations, mostly because my parents don't really like traveling much (my dad is SUPER picky about the foods he'll eat and sees most leisure activites as not only a waste of money but a waste of time -- yeah). We mostly roadtripped in the US to places close by: South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Chicago, etc...

We mostly ate homecooked meals (which I am constantly in awe of every day now, granted my mom was a SAHM). We rarely ate out, again, my parents viewed it (and still view it) as a waste of money.

We would ask for things and generally never get them, but we weren't lacking in toys or clothes? Just, they didn't indulge us in any way.

But we went to Korea every summer and winter (for the first 12 years of my life) cause my grandparents wanted to see us, and then we moved there briefly when I was 13 cause my grandfather passed away.

soralette

SS: Divorced parents, lol.

I was the only kid I knew with a brand-new laptop and not enough money to afford groceries every week in HS.

picksthemusic

I chose SS... it was a mix of the first two. My grandparents helped out a lot, but we did live in HUD housing when I was a teenager. I did go to Disneyland with my mom once, but again, my grandparents helped. My mom never could have done it on her own. After my dad left us, we had our electricity shut off on a regular basis (my mom just told us we were having "candlelight dinners"), she had to make soup all the time to use up any leftover food we had, she made friends with the grocery store workers who would set aside produce they were pulling so she could have it for free; she also made friends with the meat locker owner who called her when someone didn't pay their bill. That's how we got most of our meat. It got better, but not much.

Of course, things are much, much better now.  

emyinpink

I chose the "disneyland" one, but really it was a combination for me as well.

My parents worked in research for the government, so my first trip out of the country was at 6 months old (my first trip ever was at 3 months). We traveled all over the US and Europe (including living in Europe) tagging along on my parents' business trips.

I took private music lessons, and did tennis, swimming, and travel soccer. My little sister did ballet. But, because there were 3 of us, I started funding my own activities and working as soon as I could. I taught private violin and piano to pay for my violin lessons in high school. I taught kids' tennis lessons for my coach in exchange for my tennis lessons from him. I drove a BMW, but it wasn't new to me, and it wasn't mine.

 I also worked starting the summer after my junior year of college in the tech industry (first research, then industry internships) to pay for my college (I had to pay for all expenses except for books).