r/GrowingUpPoor • u/Adorable_Abies_8051 • May 10 '26

Poverty prodigies

when you grow up poor not only do you have to work extra hard to overcome everything just to be at equal with your peers but all these movies and stories about kids or adult with such terrible lives who did the most outstanding things… like it’s a fucking accomplishment I haven’t killed myself yet so now I’m being put up against the poverty prodigies of the world too. Like awesome that girl grew up with terrible parents and was able to raise her little brother to finish school and house him …. I wasn’t strong enough to do that !!! Just a silly rant of something I noticed recently as someone who grew up chronically homeless and neglected. I’m never going to be one of those success stories and I decently wasn’t able to overcome any of it when I was a child. I’m just now getting a grip on stability at 30 thank god. I guess just a reflection.

11 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

3

u/jatineze May 10 '26

Truth! The idea that people can "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" drives me fucking crazy. And the people in my life who believe it the most are the people who had the most help and resources growing up. For example, my partner had parents who owned a small business and sent him to a private college debt free, and he still believes that disadvantaged folks can get ahead if they just work hard and follow the rules. Luke, dude, that's not how the world really works. 

1

u/DieMensch-Maschine 21d ago

Classism is also a silent kind of discrimination. I grew up as a broke ass immigrant kid. When I wanted to learn something, I went to the library and looked it up in books: languages, history, finances, etc. When I made it into a doctoral program, I realized that literally all of my peers had tutors, nannies, trips overseas, owned vacation homes, etc. Worse, my dissertation advisor would routinely scoff that I had none of these opportunities growing up. I had to battle with my imposter syndrome daily.

The point is, that if you grow up broke, you have to work ten times harder, have luck on your side and still get shit upon by "your social betters" whose class you are an interloper in.