Happy Monday Ladies!!
Can you believe Christmas is next week?!!
Before we jump in to today be sure to jump over to My girl Ashton at A Fluffy Girl's blog, She organized a huge Christmas Cash Giveaway that myself and a bunch of other AWESOME bloggers are sponsoring!
And don't forget about my Christmas Traditions Gift Box Giveaway! ending Thursday!
Now on to today....
Were gonna branch onto a serious side of things, this is something thats been on my mind for the last few days because of the holiday season and all the wants, needs, desires, greed and goodwill.
Wednesday I spent the day shopping and hanging out with my mom.
We had a great time, we always do and like always we got into one if those deep adult talks. This time we were talking about my childhood, holidays, needs wants and the definition of poor.
I grew up in a working class family, there were my parents and my sister and I. They become parents very young, my dad was farming and my babysat or worked at a local farm store. According to my mom, things were good for a while but the last few years on the farm were hard. When I was young young my dad was offered a job from a guy all the way out in Kansas. We were in rural Missouri, this was a big move. My parents bought my great grandmothers old Chevy for $500, the glove box was held on with sticky tack and the roof liner with thumbtacks. They loaded us up and on faith they moved us a state over. They rented a 2 bedroom house, yes 2 Bedroom, my bedroom was technically the living room and the dining room was our living room and the dining room table was in the kitchen.
Did I know any different?
Nope.
Did I care?
Sure didn't.
My mom told me that at that point they were living off of 1200$ a month. That included the $250 rent all bills groceries and us as the kids' needs.
I wore second hand clothes, Walmart specials and wasn't allowed a lot of extras when I was young young.
When it came to meals, you ate what was put in front of you or you went with out. When we traveled to town to get groceries, the whole family shared a drink on the way home. With the exception of when it was happy hour and my mom would let me and my sister each get our own drink.
That was a special time for us.
When it came to clothes we got what we could through thrift stores then at Walmart and occasionally JC Penny's or Kmart. I got one pair of school shoes, my tennis shoes, and they were for the whole year and I knew damn well I better take care of them.
When it came to holidays my sister and I came first, my parents bought for each other last. My parents ALWAYS found away to help and give others at the holidays. I will forever remember baking up batches and batches of goodies, and then giving them away. That was kindness and love at it's finest right there.
To the rest of the world we may have been poor, but to us, we weren't. We were happy, healthy, comfortable, clothed ,clean, fed and had a home. My childhood was not one to regret not one to be putties for, my childhood was amazing. I value so much that my parents gave me that money couldn't buy.
We had quality time together.
On Sundays the family would go to the local flee market and walk around, it was free so why not! While I was growing up my summers were spent working with my dad, that's how I got extras, I worked for them. If my sister and I wanted something we did extra chores for it.
That was something that continued my entire life.
As things got better for my family, the business that my dad was hired into, he bought, we had a three bedroom house, newer vehicles, ect.
The values never changed.
Years past and my family became more comfortable with money situations but I never stopped working for my dad to earn my extras. I even worked for my mom. My dad is a combine mechanic and my mom cleaned houses and offices. When I was in jr high/highschool I'd get up over an hour early once a week to go with her to help clean an office, my reward was breakfast from the doughnut store, I really looked forward to that. During the summer I'd help clean to get money for admission to the races.
All of our family vacations were actually work trips for my dad, do this this and this and then get to have some extra fun.
Fast forward to the present, my parents have worked their asses off remodeling the rather cheap old house they bought making it a beautiful fully remodeled and up to date home over the years. They have nice vehicles and 2 condos in Hawaii. They have earned the splurged because they are still as humble as ever. They aren't above helping, they know how to budget and manage money well.
I have taken those same values and applied them to my life. Little did I know growing up when I complained about chores or hand me downs and so on that my parents were bettering my life. They made me string, independent , street smart, kind hearted and humble. It took me being an adult on my own to fully appreciate all those life lessons I learned.
But through all of that I never remember being "poor", my childhood didn't suffer because I couldn't have brand new this and that or so on. I had a great childhood, I would go as far to say that my childhood was far better than some kids who got everything they wanted when they did. They didn't get the family time and the love I did. So in all reality we were rich and the others were poor.
To me poor means no home, no vehicle no food and limited baths and clothes.
I had all if those, so we weren't poor at least not by our definition.
So don't look at my childhood and think we were poor because we didn't have this or that. My childhood was great and happy and were rich in all of the right ways.
I totes had a bright pink second hand snow suit that made me feel like this
This is why I find so much inspiration in my parents, they started from the very bottom and worked hard to be where they are today, by they time Jr High and Highschool came around things financially were a lot looser for my parents. This was a family vacation around the time of their anniversary and my 18th birthday.
Love & blessings
-J
Excellent post. People nowadays just don't get it. Things have changed so much since I was a kid... Even between me and my little bro and sis. (12 years difference) its hard for them to imagine what we went without, but by choice, not because we had to. Values are so important and your parents instilled some great ones in you. :)
ReplyDeleteSuch a great post! You are such a beautiful person inside and out!
ReplyDeleteTHank you so much for sharing this. I've thought of writing a similar post but have never been able to put it into words. I think people's definition of "poor" is all relative. When I was in high school, I won a scholarship to a private prep school where kids got new cars for their 16th birthdays. My family on the other hand, was still driving a car that was older than my friends. When I met up with a good friend of mine from high school a couple of months ago, she was going on and on about how expensive it is going to be to have kids. And I realized that she had a completely different mindset of how much it takes to raise a kid than I do because she was raised differently. WE didn't need much as kids--I think its parents nowadays that go overboard with how much "stuff" kids have.
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