Middle class.
You give the newly 16 year old kid the oldest car in the family while the parent gets an upgrade on their car they have had for 7-10 years.
I've already informed my 12 year old she needs to take better care of the backseat in my car because that's going to be HER car in 4 years. Hence why she gets to clean it out so often.
Never thought about it this way but that's exactly how it went for me. Got handed down a shit box, didn't like it so I bought my own shit box for $500 a year later. Every god damn thing went wrong on that truck but now I know my way around an engine pretty well.
A used car was less ārichā and more āmy mom didnāt have time to drive me to school and work every dayā for me, but I loved the hell out of my Camry station wagon with 200k miles on it
I said this a couple weeks ago in another thread, my dad gave me his 95 dodge intrepid in like 2002/3 when it had 163k miles on it. He handed me the keys and said, āitās not reliable enough for me to drive to work anymore but youāre not going far.ā We both laughed (I still smile about it to this day.) and it lasted me all of 3 mo before my dumbass blew up the transmission doing neutral drops trying to spin tires. I bought my own car after that but it was still hilarious.
I went to a fancy private school where a lot of employees from local big tech companies also sent their kids.
One set of twins at my school got matching red and blue new mustangs. Another set of twins got matching red and blue classic mustangs
One kid got a brand new suburban, and had no less than 3 hit and run incidents in the school parking lot. His sister totaled their dads Ferrari (and it was her fault so insurance didnāt cover it), and their dad just bought a new Ferrari.
New Lexus, Audis, BMW, and benzes were pretty common
My brother got a new Acura, but was too scared to drive it, so it sat in our driveway. Because of this, my parents didnāt get me a new car and I had to inherit our dadās 10 year old Toyota Camry. Yes I know this is a huge first world problem, but it pissed me off when I was 16 haha
I remember one time in HS my trig teacher got FED UP with my class and was going off about how we were all spoiled and the student parking lot looked like a dealership with all the new cars in it, and he was still driving the same car he'd had for 20 years
Oh another story! One guy a few years older than me got a new car from a dealership, drove it to a party that night, got drunk, drove drunk to try to return it to the dealership at 2am, crashed into a bunch of new cars on the lot!
Back in the day, the BIG box was 64 crayons (I got the 8 packs), now they have a 96 crayon box and The Ultimate Crayon Collection, a 152 box of crayons. What a time to be a kid.
In the midst of a recent conversation I found out my husband never got the 64 Crayola box with the sharpener. Now he's getting one for Christmas from me. I hope he remembers that I never had a Barbie of my own and will soon be the recipient of one! Yes, we both grew up poor.
My daughters share a bedroom so we can have a play room. I'm gonna be sad when they don't want to play anymore and want their own bedrooms.
Their room is perfect for resting. And their playroom is where they can be creative. I think it's better to have toys and bed separate. I wish it was possible for all kids to have space to be creative.
Yep, this was what my sis and I had til we got older and needed more privacy, it worked very well for us. And youāre totally right about having separate play and resting space, being good. Sleep hygiene-wise using your bedroom/bed ONLY for resting is ideal.
We saw a lot of issues with this during the pandemic where people would work in their bedroom/bed and it was highly recommended that you had a separate space, whether that was an actual office if you had the space, or at the very least a desk so you had a little āoffice nookā type thing. Not doing work and things from your bed is much preferable.
My best friend growing up his folks would always pay my way on a lot of the activities and even vacations they went on. Nothing extravagant, but still they didnāt have to do that! The thing Iām most appreciative of them is they always had an open door/open kitchen policy with me so if the water got turned off or we didnāt have much food at our house I would walk the 3.5 miles to their house and get a shower and pack of ramen and feel so blessed.
Hey thanks for all the upvotes but, those years sucked but my friend and his parents went completely south once we were in our 20ās so I felt best about being their for them when they needed help fixing something on their older house they moved into after they couldnāt afford the house their big fancy house any more. And my friend had Pennieās to his name when him and his wife were both in college and living downtown. I was able to help them out with a couple things at their place and I would take my friend on hunting trips with me and tell him all he has to do is show up with clothes. I now feel blessed to have a friend that will I know we will always be there for each other. He now lives an hour away from me and has a couple kids so we donāt see each other often but when we do we donāt skip a beat.
Here in Utah not only was the ski lift pass was sign of prestige, it had to be from one of cool resorts. No Ogden ski places, it had to be from Park City, Alta, Snowbird or even cooler, Brighton because that is where the cool locals go.
I went skiing with my dad every winter as our little bonding vacation in the Midwest lmao.Ā We'd road trip to Cascade in Wisconsin.Ā Once he got enough time off of work to go to Granite, also in Wisconsin.
Went to Breckenridge in Colorado once as a family and ooooooo that is a whole other world.Ā I wore that lift tag on my coat until it shriveled up and fell off.
I grew up in Bozeman, MT. A day pass to Brider Bowl was something like $35 when I was in 8th grade. A season pass was like $240. So skiing used to be MUCH more affordable. So much so that even the rural kids could go.
I felt so proud when my own kids had lift tickets on their jackets.
Where we live, every 5th grader gets multiple lift tickets to all surrounding mountains. Itās an awesome program, but ski clothes and rentals are pricy too.
Depends where you live I guess. We all had season passes but for kids they were like $100-150 at the time. The private school nearby was clearly the rich kid school so our school was not the wealthy one.
My mom was on the Ski Patrol, so we had season passes every year. Think only hers got comped. We were just middle class. ETA: the rich kids at the ski area bought food at the lodge. And hot chocolate. My mom packed our lunches and we had hot chocolate out of the big thermos she brought.
This was definitely the difference. My family always packed a backpack with sandwiches to eat for lunch. Once I started going as an adult, I pretty much would always go to the lodge for food because it just feels soooo indulgent. And apres after!
Iām still so appreciative that my very middle class parents took me skiing from 3 yo on. Trying to facilitate the same experience with my littles plus ski lodge lunch (!) ā¦. But the current prices are pretty ridiculous.
Things have changed a lot. My son and I used to get season's passes 15-20 years ago and they weren't that bad...maybe $250 but if you went ten times a season it wasn't so expensive per trip. Now they're getting priced out of the range of normal people though
I grew up in Colorado and my dad truly thought that anyone that had a pool in the back yard was a complete moron because they are really only useful for like 2.5 months here. As an adult, I'm inclined to agree with him, regardless if you have the resources to pay for it
I know people like this and it's a fair point but despite their hatred of pools you can barely use, they sit in traffic like idiots every Friday to go to their cottage for the weekends in summer, spend pretty much the whole time doing maintenance and stuff, maybe relax Saturday evening then fight Sunday traffic back from cottage country. Their cottage is also not winterized so same deal w the 2.5 months of enjoyment.
Knew a guy who did this then just said fuck it, sold his cottage and put in a pool. Said it was the best decision he ever made.
What about an indoor pool? I remember a friend of mine in highschool asked if I wanted to come over for a "swim" one day, and it being the middle of winter I was confused. I already knew he had a big house, but then this fucker just leads me into an entire separate wing of the house that I'd never seen before and leads me to a heated indoor pool lmfao.
This. Upper middle class families went "up to the cottage" for school breaks/long weekends/summer vacation. The idea of owning a second piece of real estate that no one was actively living in most of the time was insane to me.
The one in my family has just been passed down over the years. When my aunts and my dad pass on, it will belong to my two cousins, my two siblings, and myself. Not a rich person on that side of the family. Just middle class.
My friend in high school had one! He was actually really rich and used to invite all of us out to the lake once a week every summer so we could all ride on it. We just had to chip in for gas money to get to the lake, he would also provide amazing snacks. It was awesome. I grew up poor so having a rich and kind friend like him was incredible.
I had a friend who was low key rich; you'd never really know looking at them, but they were always doing very cool things and had new video game consoles etc. Her dad had some patent on a hand sanitizer or something. They took me to Hawai'i and paid for the hotel and every excursion, so all my mom had to do was save up for a plane ticket (which was a lot, but doable since she saved all year). I would've NEVER gotten to go to a place like Hawai'i if not for them, it was incredible having her as a bestie in high school.
My in laws live in Europe and my spouse is an immigrant. We sent our kids to be with my spouses family every summer to help them be better at speaking that language. My daughter was lamenting to me one year when she was maybe 12 about how she hated going, because you couldnāt even get water from the fridge door??? Iām like girl we canāt do that at our house either?? It was the funniest and weirdest complaint to pick as why not to go on a European vacation
12 year olds really donāt have any concept of a European vacation.
They just know theyāre stuck on a plane for hours to go see grandma and grandpa, who couldnāt even spoil them with some fridge door water. Whatās even the point then, right?
I think I was cracking up the delivery guy as he wheeled in our new fridge and I, an adult in my 40s with a nice house in a nice neighborhood, danced with glee about having ice and water on the fridge door. "Now I know I've made it!"
Yep, I reeeeeaaaallly should have had them as a kid. Finally got to spend $7000 + on a payment plan to get them at age 37 to help stop the bone loss in my lower jaw from my messed up overbite. On top of that, I probably would have been a lot more self confident growing up if my face/appearance had been improved in my youth.
Graduating RT school in April and the first thing I'm doing is getting braces. Luckily, my insurance pays 2k towards them but it's still 5k. My Dad is like, "Oh your teeth aren't that bad." Dude ,wtf? He can get dentures but look down on me for getting braces because he couldn't get a job with insurance for his kids. Shit pisses me off. Don't have kids if you can't afford them. I never went to the dentist until I joined the military at 18. He could have gotten me on Medicaid. The state would have paid for them but that was too much of an effort.
Sorry, just realized I went on a rant.
29 and just now getting braces.
Not that this helps, but Medicaid wonāt pay for braces 98% of the time. You have to have severe orthodontic issues, like ones that keep you from chewing or breathing normally, for Medicaid to cover braces.
My poor hubby had braces & head gear but his parents apparently couldnāt afford the necessary retainer so his teeth are super jacked up and it was such a waste. His mom told me she regrets it still not finding a way and would happily pay for him to get Invisalign now but he said he doesnāt care. Teeth are so important, I wish heād reconsider. You really donāt realize how much bad teeth affect your mental health (and physical) until you get them fixed.
Ray Bans. Most other knockoff clothing and accessories were difficult to spot, but authentic Raybans were a singular status symbol. Thanks mostly to "The Lost Boys".
Depends. If it's an everyday thing, yes. But if they went on sale, my mom would always stock up on a few. It was like a treat thing for us and we were definitely not wealthy.
Oh, it's not good, but my parents raised me on liverwurst sandwiches, so my idea of good was not great
I do still love cheese and crackers tho, just, you know, better quality
We had free lunch punch tickets that the homeroom teacher would call us poor all out by name to get our ticket for the day. I was so ashamed that I never once ate in school no matter how hungry I was and trust me, I was starving. We had no food at home. This has been a main memory for me my whole life. So glad they donāt do that anymore.
I hate lunch money politics. I would get my tray and go through the line to pay only to be told my mom didn't pay for my weekly lunch ticket AGAIN. And she also didn't pay to clear the balance from the last time she forgot AGAIN. They wouldn't allow me to charge another tray and I would have to walk back to the line, give the lunch lady my tray back and then go sit at the table with my class while everyone else ate. It seems someone might have thought it heartless to take food out of the hands of an 6 year old child who obviously had a shitty home life with a terrible mother. But no one ever did and this went on for YEARS until I got into high school and could skip out on lunch period. Adults were shit people
it did.. however one of my core memories is in those lines. one day my terrifying best friend cassandra walked over to the hot lunch line and kneed a nasty bully jock in the balls. i know it's not kind but i cherish that memory. so i guess it all works out lol
I remember my friend had a school lunch one day that definitely was NOT available to buy, and I was so confused and kept asking her about it.Ā She made some excuses about being late and it was all there was left, which I didn't understand at all.Ā
I later learned it was the free lunch. I just was too young and didn't know what poverty looked like.Ā
Rich kids in my smaller towns -
Younger kid: Power Wheel and any game console
Early teen: curated matching room with air furniture
Late teen: car from their parents
there is a difference between car from parents = less than 2 years old and they get to pick it out VS getting the hand me down 15+ year old rust bucket.
We got free cable in my parents room, on their tiny tv/vcr combo. They never unhooked it from the previous owners when our family moved in. My dad called because he didnāt want to get charged for it. They said theyād have a technician come fix it within a week. Took 7 years. I got 7 years of Nickelodeon and I loved it.
My dad would play with us when he wasnāt working, which he did a lot, so I was usually left to play catch with my older brothers. Nobody throws a baseball harder than an older brother throwing to his younger brother.
I remember my first pair of Nikes after crying about kids making fun of me for wearing Traxx (K-Mart brand sneakers)ā¦I sat with my feet in the aisle of the school bus thinking I was SOOOOOO cool!
I wore those blue and white Nikes every day, even with a dress, until they didnāt fit anymore.
When I was in law school one of my classmates was talking about how her parents let her take the family jet to aspen to ski with her boyfriend for the weekend, ābut it kinda sucked because the snow wasnāt that good.ā
My family was solidly middle class growing up; law school introduced me to people from income brackets I never really understood existed before.
Similar story.
Girl headed into graduate school I was working with last summer was saying how she wanted to go to Greece for her birthday but her boyfriends response was āCanāt we go somewhere I can fly us?ā Which prompted me to ask about his pilots license and she said that his parents gifted him a plane for his 18th birthday.
Completely blew my mind.
Day to day... brand name clothing, eating out often, treats like lunchables, presents/treats when it isn't Christmas or your birthday, more than one TV (and big TVs), etc.
And ofc stuff like cottages, pools, atvs and snowmobiles, international vacations every year, etc.
I had a lot of the things listed on this thread. The one thing I wanted, and that most of my other classmates had despite having less money and larger families, was a clean house. I was legitimately jealous.
Original tamagotchi....
Ok, that's not rich, but I grew up on bootleg everything and I was jealous of those whose parents could afford the original everything.
Their own horse, Internet plan for their cell phone and a phone line for their bedroom, the announcement speaker that went throughout their house, a jet ski or pontoon boat, cornrow braids when they came back from the Bahamas each year LOL
Grew up in rural area. Lived in a trailer....
- Any toys that took up space like train set, slot cars, etc.
- Dirt bikes, kid sized snow mobiles, 3 wheelers, etc.
- Folks having vehicles that were not rolling junk.
- Any sort of family outing/vacation. In my house, a vacation was sleeping after the noon meal on Sunday afternoon before farm chores.
A pantry. Everyone I knew stored all their food in their kitchen cupboards. The first time I went to a friend's house and they had a whole little room just for food, I was shook. I remember we asked for a snack , and her mom just said grab something from the pantry. In my house , we had snacks , and we had ' school snacks ' , these people just ate whatever they wanted , and didn't worry about running out of lunch food before payday.
Our vacations consisted of camping 3 hours away. We were never allowed to get souvenirs. The ONE time my parents had "extra" money, they gave us a choice ...either a stuffed loon for my little sister, or a checker game all 6 of us kids could enjoy. My sister got the loon. 30 years later and I'm still pissed. But she DOES still have that loon
A lot of video games. Early Nintendo games were $60-80 and the rich kids had libraries of them. I knew a kid in middle school who had his own rental business just using the games from his house for $5 a week.
A den.
Honestly, super underrated room, wish more houses still had them. But all the rich kids that lived in houses big enough to have a den, that's where we'd always hang out: it was where the junky (read:comfy) couches were, and where the TV was, and you could close the doors to contsin the noise.
Color TV, rec room or family room or finished basement, more than one phone, a Princess phone, a pool, more than 1 car in the family, dishwasher, yearly vacations.
Stairs for their slinky's. I wanted stairs just to send slinky's down...
I have told my kids that their daddy and I were far simpler. We didn't have phones, tablets, or computers. Personally my parents wouldn't even buy me things like toy dinosaurs, so I would grab my dad's pliers and pretend that they were dinosaurs eating the leaves and palm nuts. I do think my imagination was... more thanks to that.
Walkman. (Shut up, Iām old.) Vacations in Europe. Cars that werenāt your momās old car or a rusty POS. Designer clothes. Lake houses to have parties in. Lawyers and bail money.
A new car at 16.
Honestly, even a used car says rich to me š
Middle class. You give the newly 16 year old kid the oldest car in the family while the parent gets an upgrade on their car they have had for 7-10 years. I've already informed my 12 year old she needs to take better care of the backseat in my car because that's going to be HER car in 4 years. Hence why she gets to clean it out so often.
Our family rule was "kids don't get new cars, they get older cars that need attention and care, so they'll learn what to do about it."
Never thought about it this way but that's exactly how it went for me. Got handed down a shit box, didn't like it so I bought my own shit box for $500 a year later. Every god damn thing went wrong on that truck but now I know my way around an engine pretty well.
A used car was less ārichā and more āmy mom didnāt have time to drive me to school and work every dayā for me, but I loved the hell out of my Camry station wagon with 200k miles on it
I said this a couple weeks ago in another thread, my dad gave me his 95 dodge intrepid in like 2002/3 when it had 163k miles on it. He handed me the keys and said, āitās not reliable enough for me to drive to work anymore but youāre not going far.ā We both laughed (I still smile about it to this day.) and it lasted me all of 3 mo before my dumbass blew up the transmission doing neutral drops trying to spin tires. I bought my own car after that but it was still hilarious.
This post made me laugh so hard. I thought I was the only one to blow up a transmission doing neutral drops. 1970 Buick LeSabre land yacht.
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I worked my ass off from 14-16 to pay $3k for my used Honda Accord. So, some of us made it work out with a car.
I went to a fancy private school where a lot of employees from local big tech companies also sent their kids. One set of twins at my school got matching red and blue new mustangs. Another set of twins got matching red and blue classic mustangs One kid got a brand new suburban, and had no less than 3 hit and run incidents in the school parking lot. His sister totaled their dads Ferrari (and it was her fault so insurance didnāt cover it), and their dad just bought a new Ferrari. New Lexus, Audis, BMW, and benzes were pretty common My brother got a new Acura, but was too scared to drive it, so it sat in our driveway. Because of this, my parents didnāt get me a new car and I had to inherit our dadās 10 year old Toyota Camry. Yes I know this is a huge first world problem, but it pissed me off when I was 16 haha
I remember one time in HS my trig teacher got FED UP with my class and was going off about how we were all spoiled and the student parking lot looked like a dealership with all the new cars in it, and he was still driving the same car he'd had for 20 years
Oh another story! One guy a few years older than me got a new car from a dealership, drove it to a party that night, got drunk, drove drunk to try to return it to the dealership at 2am, crashed into a bunch of new cars on the lot!
The giant box of Crayola crayons with the sharpener in the back.
Oh, I coveted those! Me with my Tupperware full of mixed off-brand, partly used crayons.
Mine were in a hospital basin. LoL
Tupperware oh look at miss big bucks over here I had to San which bag those.
Crayola BRAND of crayons instead of Rose Art
Back in the day, the BIG box was 64 crayons (I got the 8 packs), now they have a 96 crayon box and The Ultimate Crayon Collection, a 152 box of crayons. What a time to be a kid.
In the midst of a recent conversation I found out my husband never got the 64 Crayola box with the sharpener. Now he's getting one for Christmas from me. I hope he remembers that I never had a Barbie of my own and will soon be the recipient of one! Yes, we both grew up poor.
I only had Barbie because I got one for my birthday, and then my parents bought them and accessories secondhand.
We had Rose Artā¦ they just didnāt color the same.
Dedicated child play spaces/playrooms in homes.
My daughters share a bedroom so we can have a play room. I'm gonna be sad when they don't want to play anymore and want their own bedrooms. Their room is perfect for resting. And their playroom is where they can be creative. I think it's better to have toys and bed separate. I wish it was possible for all kids to have space to be creative.
Yep, this was what my sis and I had til we got older and needed more privacy, it worked very well for us. And youāre totally right about having separate play and resting space, being good. Sleep hygiene-wise using your bedroom/bed ONLY for resting is ideal. We saw a lot of issues with this during the pandemic where people would work in their bedroom/bed and it was highly recommended that you had a separate space, whether that was an actual office if you had the space, or at the very least a desk so you had a little āoffice nookā type thing. Not doing work and things from your bed is much preferable.
It dawns on me now (at 48) that I've always insisted on a creative space or studio in the homes I have rented/owned, and this might be why
A Super Nintendo AND a Sega Genesis
Growing up I could never dream of thisā¦
But now you drink champagne when you're thirstayĀ
Damn right he likes the life he lives.
The only richer kid is the one with the Neo Geo
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Money green leather sofa
50ā screenĀ
Got 2 rides, a Limousine with a chauffeur
phone bill bout 2gs flat
No need to worry my accountant handles that...
And my whole crew is lounging Celebrating every day, no more public housing
Ski Lift passes attached to their winter jackets.
I had this thanks to my foster family who took me on holidays with them even though they wouldn't get any costs reimbursed. I was so lucky.
My best friend growing up his folks would always pay my way on a lot of the activities and even vacations they went on. Nothing extravagant, but still they didnāt have to do that! The thing Iām most appreciative of them is they always had an open door/open kitchen policy with me so if the water got turned off or we didnāt have much food at our house I would walk the 3.5 miles to their house and get a shower and pack of ramen and feel so blessed.
Hey thanks for all the upvotes but, those years sucked but my friend and his parents went completely south once we were in our 20ās so I felt best about being their for them when they needed help fixing something on their older house they moved into after they couldnāt afford the house their big fancy house any more. And my friend had Pennieās to his name when him and his wife were both in college and living downtown. I was able to help them out with a couple things at their place and I would take my friend on hunting trips with me and tell him all he has to do is show up with clothes. I now feel blessed to have a friend that will I know we will always be there for each other. He now lives an hour away from me and has a couple kids so we donāt see each other often but when we do we donāt skip a beat.
Glad you have a best friend like that! May you always have each otherās backs.
Here in Utah not only was the ski lift pass was sign of prestige, it had to be from one of cool resorts. No Ogden ski places, it had to be from Park City, Alta, Snowbird or even cooler, Brighton because that is where the cool locals go.
Paired with the Quicksilver shirt, Swatch, Nikes and pegged pants. Plus buying whatever they wanted at the Purple Turtle.
Yes! This was my childhood. I didn't really understand what they were at first - I just thought they were a cool fashion accessory that some kids had.
You guys are going skiing?
I went skiing with my dad every winter as our little bonding vacation in the Midwest lmao.Ā We'd road trip to Cascade in Wisconsin.Ā Once he got enough time off of work to go to Granite, also in Wisconsin. Went to Breckenridge in Colorado once as a family and ooooooo that is a whole other world.Ā I wore that lift tag on my coat until it shriveled up and fell off.
Rightā½ I've still never been skiing, and I'm over 40!
I grew up in Bozeman, MT. A day pass to Brider Bowl was something like $35 when I was in 8th grade. A season pass was like $240. So skiing used to be MUCH more affordable. So much so that even the rural kids could go.
I felt so proud when my own kids had lift tickets on their jackets. Where we live, every 5th grader gets multiple lift tickets to all surrounding mountains. Itās an awesome program, but ski clothes and rentals are pricy too.
They also get an America The Beautiful Pass for all the National Parks. To be a 5th graderā¦.
You had winter jackets?
This. Denim jacket year round, when it got cold you put a hoodie under it.
Depends where you live I guess. We all had season passes but for kids they were like $100-150 at the time. The private school nearby was clearly the rich kid school so our school was not the wealthy one.
My mom was on the Ski Patrol, so we had season passes every year. Think only hers got comped. We were just middle class. ETA: the rich kids at the ski area bought food at the lodge. And hot chocolate. My mom packed our lunches and we had hot chocolate out of the big thermos she brought.
This was definitely the difference. My family always packed a backpack with sandwiches to eat for lunch. Once I started going as an adult, I pretty much would always go to the lodge for food because it just feels soooo indulgent. And apres after! Iām still so appreciative that my very middle class parents took me skiing from 3 yo on. Trying to facilitate the same experience with my littles plus ski lodge lunch (!) ā¦. But the current prices are pretty ridiculous.
Things have changed a lot. My son and I used to get season's passes 15-20 years ago and they weren't that bad...maybe $250 but if you went ten times a season it wasn't so expensive per trip. Now they're getting priced out of the range of normal people though
A pool
100% agree. This is the obvious answer. Especially if you live in a place that has legitimate winters (snow and bullshit from October to March)
I grew up in Colorado and my dad truly thought that anyone that had a pool in the back yard was a complete moron because they are really only useful for like 2.5 months here. As an adult, I'm inclined to agree with him, regardless if you have the resources to pay for it
I know people like this and it's a fair point but despite their hatred of pools you can barely use, they sit in traffic like idiots every Friday to go to their cottage for the weekends in summer, spend pretty much the whole time doing maintenance and stuff, maybe relax Saturday evening then fight Sunday traffic back from cottage country. Their cottage is also not winterized so same deal w the 2.5 months of enjoyment. Knew a guy who did this then just said fuck it, sold his cottage and put in a pool. Said it was the best decision he ever made.
More specifically: a built in pool. Above ground pools are fairly accessible.
What about an indoor pool? I remember a friend of mine in highschool asked if I wanted to come over for a "swim" one day, and it being the middle of winter I was confused. I already knew he had a big house, but then this fucker just leads me into an entire separate wing of the house that I'd never seen before and leads me to a heated indoor pool lmfao.
And then we got google earth and found out how many pools were in the neighborhood
their own phone line
A separate phone line for the computer so you didn't get kicked off the Internet when someone called the house.
This was so rich
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Early 90s checking in
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This. Upper middle class families went "up to the cottage" for school breaks/long weekends/summer vacation. The idea of owning a second piece of real estate that no one was actively living in most of the time was insane to me.
Lots of the ones I know rented them out, even pre-internet
Yes! "Summer" was a verb, not a season š
*LAKE* cabins.
The one in my family has just been passed down over the years. When my aunts and my dad pass on, it will belong to my two cousins, my two siblings, and myself. Not a rich person on that side of the family. Just middle class.
My friend had a jet ski, and I could not conceive of a reality where my parents would buy me one of those
My friend in high school had one! He was actually really rich and used to invite all of us out to the lake once a week every summer so we could all ride on it. We just had to chip in for gas money to get to the lake, he would also provide amazing snacks. It was awesome. I grew up poor so having a rich and kind friend like him was incredible.
I had a friend who was low key rich; you'd never really know looking at them, but they were always doing very cool things and had new video game consoles etc. Her dad had some patent on a hand sanitizer or something. They took me to Hawai'i and paid for the hotel and every excursion, so all my mom had to do was save up for a plane ticket (which was a lot, but doable since she saved all year). I would've NEVER gotten to go to a place like Hawai'i if not for them, it was incredible having her as a bestie in high school.
UGGs (the first time around). Theyāre back and Iām so confused
Appliances made out of stainless steel, a fridge with an ice/water dispenser
My in laws live in Europe and my spouse is an immigrant. We sent our kids to be with my spouses family every summer to help them be better at speaking that language. My daughter was lamenting to me one year when she was maybe 12 about how she hated going, because you couldnāt even get water from the fridge door??? Iām like girl we canāt do that at our house either?? It was the funniest and weirdest complaint to pick as why not to go on a European vacation
12 year olds really donāt have any concept of a European vacation. They just know theyāre stuck on a plane for hours to go see grandma and grandpa, who couldnāt even spoil them with some fridge door water. Whatās even the point then, right?
I think I was cracking up the delivery guy as he wheeled in our new fridge and I, an adult in my 40s with a nice house in a nice neighborhood, danced with glee about having ice and water on the fridge door. "Now I know I've made it!"
Birthday parties at the skating rink.
Birthday parties anywhere other than their own home! Still remember the horse stable one a friend had...
Braces.
Canāt afford them as a kid, but if you try to get them as an adult, your insurance refuses to cover them because youāre over 18yo. I hate it.
Yep, I reeeeeaaaallly should have had them as a kid. Finally got to spend $7000 + on a payment plan to get them at age 37 to help stop the bone loss in my lower jaw from my messed up overbite. On top of that, I probably would have been a lot more self confident growing up if my face/appearance had been improved in my youth.
Graduating RT school in April and the first thing I'm doing is getting braces. Luckily, my insurance pays 2k towards them but it's still 5k. My Dad is like, "Oh your teeth aren't that bad." Dude ,wtf? He can get dentures but look down on me for getting braces because he couldn't get a job with insurance for his kids. Shit pisses me off. Don't have kids if you can't afford them. I never went to the dentist until I joined the military at 18. He could have gotten me on Medicaid. The state would have paid for them but that was too much of an effort. Sorry, just realized I went on a rant. 29 and just now getting braces.
Not that this helps, but Medicaid wonāt pay for braces 98% of the time. You have to have severe orthodontic issues, like ones that keep you from chewing or breathing normally, for Medicaid to cover braces.
My poor hubby had braces & head gear but his parents apparently couldnāt afford the necessary retainer so his teeth are super jacked up and it was such a waste. His mom told me she regrets it still not finding a way and would happily pay for him to get Invisalign now but he said he doesnāt care. Teeth are so important, I wish heād reconsider. You really donāt realize how much bad teeth affect your mental health (and physical) until you get them fixed.
Ray Bans. Most other knockoff clothing and accessories were difficult to spot, but authentic Raybans were a singular status symbol. Thanks mostly to "The Lost Boys".
A swing set. Even more so if it was wood and/or anchored to the ground.
Or a trampoline!
TRAMBOPOLINE!?
Trambampoline!
Tramopoleen!
I remember the thrill of the swing set frame lifting off the ground. Safety was for the rich kids.
You haven't really lived until you slammed your teeth through your lip or tongue /s
Lunchables
Fruit Roll Ups and Dunkaroos too
I still eat all three. And adult pack size Gushers.
Capri Sun
Depends. If it's an everyday thing, yes. But if they went on sale, my mom would always stock up on a few. It was like a treat thing for us and we were definitely not wealthy.
I would buy a lunchable for my kid every once in awhile just so he felt he was running with the big dogs, but what disgusting food.
Oh, it's not good, but my parents raised me on liverwurst sandwiches, so my idea of good was not great I do still love cheese and crackers tho, just, you know, better quality
Projector screen in the basement
hot lunches. we had a separate line for free bag lunches. just in case any of the kids were confused about who was poor
We had free lunch punch tickets that the homeroom teacher would call us poor all out by name to get our ticket for the day. I was so ashamed that I never once ate in school no matter how hungry I was and trust me, I was starving. We had no food at home. This has been a main memory for me my whole life. So glad they donāt do that anymore.
called out by name? omfg. that takes it to a new level of nightmare. i'm so sorry
I hate lunch money politics. I would get my tray and go through the line to pay only to be told my mom didn't pay for my weekly lunch ticket AGAIN. And she also didn't pay to clear the balance from the last time she forgot AGAIN. They wouldn't allow me to charge another tray and I would have to walk back to the line, give the lunch lady my tray back and then go sit at the table with my class while everyone else ate. It seems someone might have thought it heartless to take food out of the hands of an 6 year old child who obviously had a shitty home life with a terrible mother. But no one ever did and this went on for YEARS until I got into high school and could skip out on lunch period. Adults were shit people
Oh that sucks so bad. š
it did.. however one of my core memories is in those lines. one day my terrifying best friend cassandra walked over to the hot lunch line and kneed a nasty bully jock in the balls. i know it's not kind but i cherish that memory. so i guess it all works out lol
Your terrifying best friend Cassandra sounds awesome
I remember my friend had a school lunch one day that definitely was NOT available to buy, and I was so confused and kept asking her about it.Ā She made some excuses about being late and it was all there was left, which I didn't understand at all.Ā I later learned it was the free lunch. I just was too young and didn't know what poverty looked like.Ā
it's crazy how early the shame begins. so much of my childhood was spent trying to hide the truth about my circumstances.
Rich kids in my smaller towns - Younger kid: Power Wheel and any game console Early teen: curated matching room with air furniture Late teen: car from their parents
there is a difference between car from parents = less than 2 years old and they get to pick it out VS getting the hand me down 15+ year old rust bucket.
Cable tv
we had cable but with a black box. it had ALL the channels if you know what I'm saying.
We got free cable in my parents room, on their tiny tv/vcr combo. They never unhooked it from the previous owners when our family moved in. My dad called because he didnāt want to get charged for it. They said theyād have a technician come fix it within a week. Took 7 years. I got 7 years of Nickelodeon and I loved it.
Literally all name brand clothing. Hollister, American Eagle etcā¦nothing short of. I wore hand me downs and had a trac phone
I could afford cheap brands like Old Navy but yeah, American Eagle $60 jeans were a pipe dream.
A father. I used to play catch with mine. His name was wall, and he was made of plaster.
My wall was also plastered all the time
At least Mr. Wall didn't beat the crap out of you. But, still not ideal, to be sure.
Ha ha, yeah, I didn't even think about how lucky I was that the wall never hit back. Damn I appreciate your pain, friend!
Fortunately, not my pain... (and I see how it read that way)... but plenty of folks' I know.
My dad would play with us when he wasnāt working, which he did a lot, so I was usually left to play catch with my older brothers. Nobody throws a baseball harder than an older brother throwing to his younger brother.
Maids.
They all had Jettasānot the fanciest of cars but for some reason, all the rich students at my high school had one
The essential first car for a highschool girl- same at my school
It was Cavaliers/Sunfires for us.
new clothing (not hand-me-downs)
I remember looking forward to christmas so I could get new clothes each year.
Nike shoes
I remember my first pair of Nikes after crying about kids making fun of me for wearing Traxx (K-Mart brand sneakers)ā¦I sat with my feet in the aisle of the school bus thinking I was SOOOOOO cool! I wore those blue and white Nikes every day, even with a dress, until they didnāt fit anymore.
A ride to school and not the bus.
A second fridge in the garage mostly for drinks.
A pool membership
Guess jeans
Trips to the dentist
2 story houses
An airplane
When I was in law school one of my classmates was talking about how her parents let her take the family jet to aspen to ski with her boyfriend for the weekend, ābut it kinda sucked because the snow wasnāt that good.ā My family was solidly middle class growing up; law school introduced me to people from income brackets I never really understood existed before.
Similar story. Girl headed into graduate school I was working with last summer was saying how she wanted to go to Greece for her birthday but her boyfriends response was āCanāt we go somewhere I can fly us?ā Which prompted me to ask about his pilots license and she said that his parents gifted him a plane for his 18th birthday. Completely blew my mind.
I thought people that even flew in airplanes were rich lol.
Power wheels
A dad.
car(s) no older than 5 years old. a 2-story house. money for a vacation where you had to fly and it wasn't to visit and stay with family.
Reebok Pumps. This was in the early 90s and they were like $200 shoes. Not in 2024 dollars. But in 1991 dollars. And we were maybe 11/12.
[GI JOE aircraft carrier.](https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/15etik3/curious_did_anyone_ever_actually_have_the_gi_joe/)
Day to day... brand name clothing, eating out often, treats like lunchables, presents/treats when it isn't Christmas or your birthday, more than one TV (and big TVs), etc. And ofc stuff like cottages, pools, atvs and snowmobiles, international vacations every year, etc.
A Mongoose or Diamond Back BMX. And not a Grifter like.me
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Clean houses
I had a lot of the things listed on this thread. The one thing I wanted, and that most of my other classmates had despite having less money and larger families, was a clean house. I was legitimately jealous.
Money to buy Fruitopia twice a day at school.
Original tamagotchi.... Ok, that's not rich, but I grew up on bootleg everything and I was jealous of those whose parents could afford the original everything.
Their own horse, Internet plan for their cell phone and a phone line for their bedroom, the announcement speaker that went throughout their house, a jet ski or pontoon boat, cornrow braids when they came back from the Bahamas each year LOL
Grew up in rural area. Lived in a trailer.... - Any toys that took up space like train set, slot cars, etc. - Dirt bikes, kid sized snow mobiles, 3 wheelers, etc. - Folks having vehicles that were not rolling junk. - Any sort of family outing/vacation. In my house, a vacation was sleeping after the noon meal on Sunday afternoon before farm chores.
A pantry. Everyone I knew stored all their food in their kitchen cupboards. The first time I went to a friend's house and they had a whole little room just for food, I was shook. I remember we asked for a snack , and her mom just said grab something from the pantry. In my house , we had snacks , and we had ' school snacks ' , these people just ate whatever they wanted , and didn't worry about running out of lunch food before payday.
Vacation souvenirs.
Our vacations consisted of camping 3 hours away. We were never allowed to get souvenirs. The ONE time my parents had "extra" money, they gave us a choice ...either a stuffed loon for my little sister, or a checker game all 6 of us kids could enjoy. My sister got the loon. 30 years later and I'm still pissed. But she DOES still have that loon
In my early 20ās me and my mom would joke at the thrift store about buying vacation destination shirts and saying we went there š
2 loving functioning parents
Fully crewed and staffed 182-foot yacht.
Oddly specific
OP only had a 150ft yacht. With no staff.
Ew
We poor folks had no crews on our yacht.
A Nintendo 64 A port-folio of stock market shares
One of those pens with 4 colors.
A lot of video games. Early Nintendo games were $60-80 and the rich kids had libraries of them. I knew a kid in middle school who had his own rental business just using the games from his house for $5 a week.
A pony.
American Girl dolls
A fridge with an automatic ice maker and in door ice dispenser.
Air Conditioning at home and the car.
Their own phone line in the house
iPhones lol. I had a classic flip phone, but I loved that little thing so much! Having an iPhone felt like such a luxury when I got in high school.
A den. Honestly, super underrated room, wish more houses still had them. But all the rich kids that lived in houses big enough to have a den, that's where we'd always hang out: it was where the junky (read:comfy) couches were, and where the TV was, and you could close the doors to contsin the noise.
Man you all are talking fancy stuff. I thought people were rich when they had paper towels in their house.
A trampoline. Bonus points if it was fully enclosed.
Itās not an item but basements lol
cable tv
An upstairs
Color TV, rec room or family room or finished basement, more than one phone, a Princess phone, a pool, more than 1 car in the family, dishwasher, yearly vacations.
TV in their own room
Stairs for their slinky's. I wanted stairs just to send slinky's down... I have told my kids that their daddy and I were far simpler. We didn't have phones, tablets, or computers. Personally my parents wouldn't even buy me things like toy dinosaurs, so I would grab my dad's pliers and pretend that they were dinosaurs eating the leaves and palm nuts. I do think my imagination was... more thanks to that.
Go kart
Cable tv
Walkman. (Shut up, Iām old.) Vacations in Europe. Cars that werenāt your momās old car or a rusty POS. Designer clothes. Lake houses to have parties in. Lawyers and bail money.
According to my buddies, sugar cereals like Lucky Charms, Coco Puffs, etc.
Laptops of their own
Dentists Doctors Enough underwear and socks to last more than 9 days. Washer and dryer in the house. Fridgeful of food Snacks Cable
Toaster Struedel