Being Poor

• Himeko wrote on 2012-10-14 01:24
  So, I came across a blog post that I found interesting about what being poor means detailed through thoughts, actions, personal strife, etc in list format. It seems a lot of people from lower income families can relate to at least a few things that are listed and since it seems a good majority of nations members have not grown up in the most privileged of circumstances or perhaps even on the other side of the spectrum, I'm curious...
  
  what does being poor mean to you?
  
  Or rather following this format "Being poor means _____________"
  
  It's entirely up to your own interpretation, whether you fill in the blank through text or pictures, and I don't ask that it be done in the same tone/style as the list either.
  
  The list:
  
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]
  Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
  Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.
  Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.
  Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.
  Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.
  Being poor is living next to the freeway.
  Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.
  Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.
  Being poor is off-brand toys.
  Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.
  Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.
  Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.
  Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.
  Being poor is Goodwill underwear.
  Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.
  Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.
  Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.
  Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.
  Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.
  Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.
  Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.
  Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.
  Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.
  Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.
  Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.
  Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.
  Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.
  Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.
  Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.
  Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner.
  Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.
  Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.
  Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.
  Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.
  Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.
  Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.
  Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.
  Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.
  Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.
  Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.
  Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.
  Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.
  Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.
  Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.
  Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.
  Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.
  Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.
  Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.
  Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.
  Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.
  Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.
  Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.
  Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.
  Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.
  Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.
  Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.
  Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.
  Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.
  Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
  Being poor is seeing how few options you have.
  Being poor is running in place.
  Being poor is people wondering why you didn't leave.
  
  By John Scalzi[/SPOILER]
• Burningsky wrote on 2012-10-14 01:51
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]Being poor is walking three miles to and from school everyday because your parents can't afford to take time off of work and pick you up.
  
  Being poor is wearing shoes until the soles wear down and become completely smooth, causing you to slip whenever the grass or concrete is wet.
  
  Being poor is wearing clothes so big, a sudden gale turns it into a parachute and blows you back several meters.
  
  Being poor makes it awkward to receive presents at Christmas, because you know you can't give anything back.
  
  Being poor means telling your parents "I don't need a birthday party" even though you've been looking forward to one for years.
  
  Being poor means putting survival before happiness.
  
  Being poor means taking the bus everywhere because you can't afford a car.
  
  Being poor means checking every receipt, and counting every penny you get back.
  
  Being poor means worrying about whether tomorrow will end up okay.
  
  Being poor makes you question whether or not you are truly hungry, because you won't have enough food to eat whenever you want to.[/SPOILER]
• paladin wrote on 2012-10-14 02:28
  Being poor is never getting any gifts from your parents on holidays
  being poor is riding a donated bike to school
  being poor is knowing your cloths were sewn by the local grandmother
  Being poor is knowing your meals wont be the best
  being poor is the knowing the hopeless of havving no money
  being poor is worrying about your next selter
• Excalibur wrote on 2012-10-14 02:58
  Being poor is knowing that you'll have to face your cold toilet seat head on in the winter.
• Taycat wrote on 2012-10-14 02:59
  Being poor is selling off all the gold and jewelry you collected your whole life and spent your hard earned money on because your family needs the money.
  Being poor is having to buy the cheap tv dinners in order to eat.
  Being poor is buying off brand food all the time, never buying on brand.
  Being poor is getting devastated when you're forced to pay for lunch because your father finally got a job that paid just enough to get you over fee waiver.
  Being poor is buying the manager's special meat that you know won't last long but you have to buy it anyway.
  Being poor is having a heater but it's broken so you're hoping the winter isn't as cold as years ago and is as warm as last year.
  Being poor sucks.
• Rin wrote on 2012-10-14 15:17
  Being poor means giving up your meal constantly so your other family members won't starve.
• ZazieTheBeast wrote on 2012-10-14 15:41
  being poor means nearly dying and needing major surgery to fix a problem that could have been prevented if they could have afforded to go to a doctor earlier
  
  also here an old cracked article similar to these list
  5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-being-poor
• Murasaki wrote on 2012-10-15 03:15
  Being poor is knowing your brother doesn't get his own room, and watching him have to explain it.
• Lewd wrote on 2012-10-15 03:43
  Being poor is living below your means
• Arsik wrote on 2012-10-15 17:35
  Being poor means having to living in a small camping tent for the summer, and being grateful that you were lucky enough to even have hot dogs to eat for dinner.
  
  Being poor means having to live in a small three room motel with a family of five, only to be kicked out during summer time to make room for customers that don't go there anymore, and then to just come back in the fall and get an even smaller room.
  
  Being poor means having to walk 20 miles to the nearest police station to pick up a wife that got arrested for a DWI with the only vehicle, to then walk 16 miles back because the car broke down shortly after getting it back.
  
  Being poor means listening to your child cry because he was bullied and had something stolen from him, only for the school to deny the claims because they doubted that the child could actually have said item in the first place.
  
  Being poor means feeling guilty because your first instinct when somebody gives you something is that they're just pitying you instead of actually caring, and then feel even guiltier because you have no way to repay them for their kindness.
  
  Being poor is working three jobs to try to keep your family from declaring bankruptcy, only to have your wife run off with the first man who would buy her a drink at the bar where she spends most of the money she earns from said bar.
  
  Being poor means praying that one of your children's friends invites them over for the weekend so that they have a real place to stay that isn't outside.
  
  Being poor means knowing just about everything you own is getting ruined from mold because you couldn't even afford to pay the $10 storage rental for the week.
• Ninjam wrote on 2012-10-18 17:45
  Being poor is having children.
  
  Kidding.
  
  Being poor is, err living in a tent all summer until mom can get back to subbing for schools.
  Being poor is also going shopping with a teacher because the school noticed your clothes were all way too small and decided to buy you new ones.
• Retard wrote on 2012-10-22 05:10
  This is depressing :<
• Reptile wrote on 2012-10-22 05:24
  Being poor is where you're buying old throw-away cars every month because you can't afford a good used one
  Being poor is when you have buttered bread or ketchup "sandwiches" for dinner
  Being poor is when you wore the same clothes you had in forth grade to your 8th grade "graduation"
  Being poor is when you live in Tennessee in the winter time with no heating, and worst of all no beds, so your mother and sister (Emily wasn't around yet) are curled up with blankets on a cold hard floor
  Being poor is when your parents couldn't afford you toys, so you'd play with old bottles and common household supplies instead.
  Being poor is when you have to beg churches for diapers and baby formula so you wouldn't have to steal it.
  Being poor is fashioning old clothes into diapers whenever you couldn't afford or obtain them
  Being poor is when you appreciate every gift you receive as if it were made of solid gold, and when you grow up to the point where you can break away from the "poor" status, you know the importance of saving, because you never know what's going to fuck up where you'll need money more than ever.
  
  
  Also, I've lived in a tent as well, but it wasn't for that long, then we were in a Motel Six where my mother was a maid and I would follow her around helping her clean some of the nastiest shit.
• Kazuni wrote on 2012-10-22 05:47

  Quote from Tiger;967240:

  This is depressing :<

  
  
  Yeah. I read about 7 lines and had to stop.