Did you think you were poor growing up?

We were poor. My mum was a single parent who relied on benefits for years, we lived in a, back to back with no heating but the coal fire. I knew we were poor at the time although most people around us were also poor, we still had outside loos in the 70s. My bike was pulled out of a skip and a neighbour fixed the brakes and put a chain on for me, all my clothes came from jumble sales. I was always aware of our poverty around Christmas and my birthday because I got so little compared to other kids my age.

Yes we were poor but then so were all the other families who lived near us so we never really thought about it. I remember my mum repairing a hole in the sole of my shoe with cardboard off a cereal packet. But I didn’t feel bad about it until I went to grammar school a few miles away where some friends came from a very different background.

No, we were considered «posh» by my classmates at my primary school which mostly served the council estate behind it.
«Posh « because we owned our house and had a phone!
I suffered a considerable amount of bullying and physical abuse at school because of this. As I recall, only three other girls and at most 2 boys didn’t live on the estate.
Not a happy time nor indeed help did it help that I was also seen as a swot because I was well behaved and did well at school.
Not « the happiest days of my life»

Yes we were poor, and made very aware of the fact at times and by certain people.
Hand me downs from cousins, second hand clothes etc.
Watching Mum workout how to cope with too much month left for the money. Chicken giblets for Sunday Dinner and if you were lucky you got a bit of chicken liver. I never could eat the gizzard!
But I don’t remember feeling poor as a child, the way I would today with all the stuff children expect-especially phones and foreign holidays (even in term time)!
We thought it great to go by bus to stay with relatives in Birmingham for a few days holiday, then their children came back with us for a bit of “rural” life.

My gran brought me up and her only income was her state pension. Occasionally my parents would send some money. So yes I’d say we were far from well off.

I thought we were poor; my parents bought the house with an outside loo, cold tap in the scullery for a daily strip wash, tin bath brought in after tea on Sunday to take turns in. Gas fired copper to heat bath water and then boil the laundry, rolled through a mangle and pegged out, or draped in front of the coal fires. Sheets resewn sides-to-middle, vests worn day and night for a week then turned inside out for a second week. Mum was a cleaner and took in ironing.

But we were the first in the street to have a car. And the first to get electricity. Every year we had a week in a tent or caravan on the south coast. We had Sunday roasts, and fish and chips, we had pets, we had a record player and a wireless and a b/w television that was bought, not rented. We had a phone that wasn’t on a shared party line. We had properly fitted Clark’s shoes and a bucket and spade for days out at the seaside, and we had a little garden full of roses and peonies, lily-of-the-valley and forget-me-nots.

In a way we had riches that others didn’t,

I'm fascinated reading all these posts. We were not poor. My father was a company director and Mum also a professional medical practitioner. We had a 'nice' house and decent clothes.
BUT.. most of my clothes were handed down from my older sister. Mum used to send sheets off to be turned 'sides to middle' and we had no heating other than coal fires until I was a teenager. I think most of this was the norm no matter how much your parents earned. It was just how we lived then.

Lived in a totally council housing area. DF was a miner and DM only did adhoc jobs when I was a teenager. Suppose we were poor but basically the same as everyone else round about. Even at primary school I was aware that some girls did seem different and had more than I did but I didn't seem to be an issue. No tv until 1958, no fridge,no holidays,no telephone, no car, all the time I lived with parents. We were fed, house was comfortable and being a DF being a miner we were warm in winter.

No we weren’t poor - we had our own house, food on the table, mostly homemade clothes. No washing machine, no car at first. Dad was the sole breadwinner (because of his macho pride), so mum had to manage the money he brought in very well, and she did, bless her. Dad handed his wage packet to mum every week. We had a holiday every year, so I think we did very well indeed, considering, but certainly not many regular treats. Things were simpler then when I grew up in the 50s and 60s so I never felt I was missing out.

We weren’t poor but we certainly weren’t well off. My dad worked part time in a pub in addition to his full time job and mum worked part time in a shop when my brother and I were older. We had money for the necessities and we always managed an annual family holiday in a caravan. When I went to grammar school I realised we were poor compared to other families. But I had a very happy childhood with my parents and extended family. Rich in love if not money.

Yes, we were poor, but looking back, at the time I didn't know we were poor.
We started life in post wars slums, there wasn't much rented accommodation to be had, but when I was about three Mum and Dad were given a brand new council house on a new estate, surrounded by countryside.

I remember having a very happy, carefree childhood. Dad worked three shifts at the factory and he cycled about ten miles in all weathers to get there. Mum stayed at home when we were young and she was a very good housekeeper. Our porch gleamed. The red tiles were always polished. I think she shared a tin of polish with three other neighbours.
Our clothes were all hand-me-downs, cardigans darned at the elbows. Mum sat in the kitchen in the evening doing sewing repairs.
Our snacks were often bread and jam or bread and dripping but Mum cooked a meal every evening and was very inventive with leftovers.
I remember it being a crime to leave the immersion heater on, which provided our hot water. It was only on for short periods as it was so expensive to run..

We'd have a week at the seaside every other year and go by coach, the coaches provided by the factories when they shut down for two weeks in the summer. These were subsidised and fleets of them set off from the bus station early on Saturday morning.

I had a very formal but good education. Mum and Dad placed high value on learning. Most children left school at 15 but Dad allowed me to stay on and go into the 6th form to take my A levels.
I had to get a Saturday job of course as money was scarce so if I wanted tights and make-up as a teenager, I had to pay for them myself.
Nothing came easily.

As an adult I really appreciated the hard work and struggles my parents had, but most of all, I think being blessed with a stable home and decent parents ( no obvious displays of affection back then, but we were secure) was such an advantage.

GrannyGravy13

MartavTaurus

Why do some people wear it as a badge of honour these days, especially MP's who want us to think they came from poor backgrounds but really they didn't.

Maybe because they want to be pitied? They think everyone likes a victim?

What I dislike is when they imply that anyone born into privilege, or who has acquired wealth, thinks they are a better person than the next petson. Or that they are stuck up, and treat poor people with disdain.

They couldn't be more wrong on this one.

Totally agree.

I know there was a short time when things were tough but we were never poor as such.

I am finding it difficult to understand why those who have been fortunate in their life feel that they have to apologise for it 🤷‍♀️

A lot who think they have been "fortunate" in their lives actually succeed because they were born into privilege in some way.
Not to say they don't work hard, but a single Mum with 3 kids that she wants to do the best for, works hard, so do many in jobs at the bottome of the ladder.

I think that I was quite unique and certainly poor growing up. Born in 1948 to a single mum in the days when babies born out of wedlock were usually adopted, my mum got to keep me and we lived with an elderly aunt and uncle who were very Victorian in their outlook. Mum of course always had to work and there was never much money around. I could have gone to grammar school but mum could not afford the uniform and so I was offered a place in the new emerging junior high schools which had an o level form in them. The next problem was convincing my great uncle to allow me to stay on to take o levels as he thought I should be working to support mum! For clothes I remember only having a basic school uniform and one dress to wear at weekends . There were no holidays, just an annual days outing to the seaside with mums work.Even now at 77 years old I will not divulge details of my upbringing to most people, only trusted friends.

Yes I know we were poor. My dad worked as a farm hand and the pay was very low.We did get free accommodation though and free milk.
We never had holidays, no car, no outings, we never went hungry though.
It was my mum I felt sad for. Stuck out in the middle of no where with no other women to chat to. I can remember a time when she had no shoes and had to wear a pair of the plastic covers that people put over their leather shoes to protect them from damp weather.
One year I got part of my school uniform for Christmas. Yes we were definitely poor!!!

We weren't poor or well off. My parents took in lodgers in rented accommodation. My grandmother (army wife) could sew anything on her machine, my mum cooked from scratch, plain but solid food, my dad fixed, made, and mended everything. They did not smoke or drink and were very thrifty and saved whatever they could. It gave me a very thrifty outlook on life which I practice to this day.

I don’t think I ever thought we were poor but looking back I realise we were. The problem was that my Dad was a gambler so our fortunes went up and down. One week Dad would take me out and spend silly amounts of money on me, much to my Mum’s disapproval, and the next my poor Mum would be looking down the back of the sofa for odd pennies but we never starved. She was a brilliant cook and could make amazing meals out of a bit of scragg end lamb or an ox tail. They did row a lot, which somehow seemed the norm, I realised later was always about money. We sadly lost Mum in her fifties and the level of Dad’s debts didn’t come to light after his death. However, I was innocently unaware of all that as a child and I still have fond memories of my childhood and my parents.

I didn’t think we were poor I absolutely knew we very poor

I never thought of my family as being poor until one day in my first year at secondary school, a few miles away from where I lived, my English teacher was talking to the class about local areas, and mentioned with a sneer the name of the road where I lived, saying that it wasn't a nice place at all. Up to that point I'd thought of him as a wonderful teacher; after that, well, not so much. Certainly he was lacking in tact

No. I am an only child but was not spoiled.. Yes I got more,there was only me after all, but a good education was highly valued by my parents. I went to state school then onto universitymy parents were very proud. Got to go on school cruise visited Malaga,Gibralter,Barcelona and Lisbon. Also got to go with Girl Guides to Switzerland. I was a very talented athlete so had access to top coaching. Loved all sport still do. Lots of love and always encouraged to bring my friends home. They also loved my parents. I was very lucky and I still miss mum and dad a lot

I don't think I realised there was a state of being 'poor' until the day when a neighbourhood boy said to me "your family's poor because you haven't got a car We've got a car And a caravan."

I was shocked to my young bones! Were we poor? We didn't have a lot of money to go around but in other ways, less focussed on money, we were richer than that boy.

It's funny how things stick in your mind for over 75 years.

Looking back my parents were not so much poor materially (we were similar to the neighbours) but in the aspirational sense. My father came from a lower working class background and the war had put paid to any ambitions he might have had to better himself. His attitude was that seeking to "get on" in life through education was an insult to your forbears and your background. He used the expression "traitor to your class" when I told him I had voted conservative.. He voted labour all his life.

My father also had very patriarchal ideas that it was not worth educating or making sacrifices for a girl. After all I was only going to "get married and have babies".

When I told him I had no intention of ever having children he said "You will have what god gives you." I told him "No, I will have what I take in this world."

I got a right battering for giving cheek.

I like the late David Hockney's quote about his family:

"We didn't think we were working class."

"We thought we were first class."

When i was little, i didnt think in terms of poor or rich. I was happy. I was adored by my grandparents (until my brother was born). However money was scarce. We lived in a tenement flat until the council built new houses and moved into one of them. Dad worked two jobs until I was at least 4. We didnt have a fridge, phone or car until I was 8. My Christmas presents were second hand. None of that bothered me. I wasn't aware of people being well off until secondary school.

Never thought we were por as ever was the same, we all had nothing but never got into debt, we were a very happy family as most were in those days, we all enjoyed life, not isolated in pods with their wealth like today,

Thank you I found this thread interesting. Flash backs to my childhood .