Growing up in a stable, loving, home

[EvolvingChristian]

Anyone who grew up in one is very blessed. I did. I was never abused. I never went hungry. I had my own bedroom which I shared with my dog. I never lacked for anything. I was very blessed to have such an upbringing. It saddens me to read that others did not.

Sometimes I see on the news that someone committed horrific crimes. I often wonder; what type of home-life did they have? My first reaction is to condemn them but, sometimes, I pause and reflect and wonder what I might have done if I had been raised as they had.

I guess that's why we have to be kind to one another because we don't know what they've gone through in life. It's easy to be a critic for one who has had a life of relative privilege. That's not to say that we shouldn't call a spade a "spade", but we should strive not to judge and not to condemn another, as hard as they may be at times.

 

[Tessa]

Well worded and so true.

 

[humble soul]

My life was so hard. Can you believe I couldn't have a tv in my own bedroom.? I had to go to the loungeroom to watch tv. With everyone else.
Times were hard but they made me the man I am today.
(lions roar can be heard)

 

[WIP]

My life was so hard. Can you believe I couldn't have a tv in my own bedroom.? I had to go to the loungeroom to watch tv. With everyone else.
Times were hard but they made me the man I am today.
(lions roar can be heard)

I didn't have a TV in my own bedroom but had to watch and "be the remote" for our one television and only watched what my parents were watching. Wait a minute. I didn't even have my own room for I shared it with my two brothers! I know I'm making light of this when it is a serious topic.

This is all true. I have four sisters and two brothers and we lived in a 3-bedroom 12' x 65' trailer house with a 9' x 16' bedroom addition off the back door where we boys slept. Just so you know, that works out to about 925 ft. sq.

Back to topic. Yes, I was fortunate to grow up in a stable, loving home. My dad was an ironworker in construction so he found himself laid off often. My parents grew a large enough garden that they grew all our vegetables that we needed. We lived on the outskirts of a small town and my parents also purchased 100 chicks every spring that we raised for butchering in the fall. We also shared the cost of raising hogs with one of our neighbors for butchering in the fall. We (kids included) butchered these animals ourselves.

I didn't notice it at the time but looking back now I realize that there were some pretty meager times between my dad's jobs but my parents never let us know it. We rarely got the latest trends in clothing or accessories and Christmas was not usually accompanied with more than a single gift or two for each child or maybe shared gifts. Yes, I remember getting teased at times because I didn't have Converse tennis shoes or the latest trending baseball mitt. Maybe that's why today I am quite conservative in my buying. I never try to outdo anyone and am usually happy with settling for less than top of the line or used versus new.

But, I would not have traded my childhood for anything and in some respects even feel sorry for those who are an only child. I couldn't imagine growing up alone like that and would much rather be monetarily poor with siblings than wealthy and alone.

 

[for_his_glory]

My childhood was somewhere between the school of hard knocks mixed with a certain amount of stability within a love hate relationship with my parents. Mean father loving Mother. Grew up on welfare didn't have much. Got teased a lot and got into some fights with other kids who called us welfare babies. Eight kids, five girls and three boys, barely able to feed and clothe us little lone buy us toys except a few on Christmas because my dad was disabled from an accident he had so very little income until my mother was able to go to work when we got old enough to take care of the younger ones. We never went without the essentials we needed as mom made clothes for my older twin sisters and they became hand me downs, but she had to buy clothes for the oldest brother and then they became hand me downs to the other two.

Our Grandparents who lived next door, another part of our loving stability, always planted a garden and canned everything and she and my mother would bake bread and make jelly from all the fruit trees we had. Saved big time on groceries. My Grandmother worked cleaning houses for two rich families and they would give her the clothes and toys their kids out grew. Very grateful as we always had nice clothes for school and Church and a few toys to play with, but I think we used our imaginations even more when it came to playing outside. When we got older in our early teens we took jobs in order to buy what we wanted. I was fifteen and worked as a live in babysitter making fifteen dollars a week. I got to come home on the weekends and it was enough to buy my own school clothes when I was in highschool. All of us eventually got jobs when we were still living at home. It was the only way to get what we wanted.

We had it ruff most of the time, especially with our dad as it was better to not be seen or heard, and it surprises me we grew up not being like him. Don't get me wrong as when push comes to shove I will tear you a new one and then I have to repent because I don't think it was justified anger LOL. Thank God for a loving mother and loving Grandparents that lived beside us.

 

[WIP]

We never went without the essentials we needed as mom made clothes for my older twin sisters and they became hand me downs, but she had to buy clothes for the oldest brother and then they became hand me downs to the other two.

Oh yeah, hand me downs. Being the oldest I was fortunate to be the one that usually got most of the new clothes. That is until my brothers grew bigger than me. Then the roles reversed. And then, two of my sisters got bigger than me and I started getting their outgrown jeans. Of course, that wasn't something I broadcast too much you know.