When you are not exactly rich or even middle class, it can be a little disheartening when your children come to realize this.
I don’t feel like we are living a poor lifestyle, but I do have to admit that we are far from being rich. We always have plenty of food to put on the table, a roof over our heads, clothes to wear, and I feel like we are doing just fine. Though I have to admit, it really hurt the one day when my son asked if we were poor. I guess you have to question what the definition of being poor is. When I think of being poor, I picture somebody living in a shack with no working HVAC system and no car to travel around. We actually have everything we need. We own our own home in a pretty nice neighborhood with no criminal activity. The kids are able to play outside freely without us being concerned for their safety. My son brought up the thing about being poor because he realized that his one friend had radiant heated floors and a nice inground swimming pool and we had nothing like that. He also had friends with fireplaces and we didn’t have that. His friends evidently suggested that we were probably poor and that is why he brought up the question. I had to admit that we were not rich, but I didn’t feel we fell under the category of actually being poor. Sure, we have to live paycheck to paycheck, but considering how things are in the economy, we definitely could be doing worse!