If you didn't grow up in the lap of luxury, you probably envied someone who did. And since the invent of social media, things have only gotten worse, because now kids can flaunt their wealth on Instagram and Twitter, which is not only annoying, but let's face it, makes you jealous as hell.
Self-identifying "former spoiled rotten kids" of Reddit shared the exact moment when they realized that life is tougher than they thought. Reading about their rude awakenings makes their status a little less enviable.
Redditor niteninjas recalls how going bankrupt changed everything for the family overnight.
About 2nd grade. That's when my family went bankrupt (my dad got fucked over by his business partner) and we went from new cars, games, eating out constantly, and computers, to filling water bottles at the library, pooling baths, and having variations of pasta for weeks for dinner, in the course of months. We're still on the climb back to full middle-upper class. I'm very fortunate to have great parents that do their best :).
Things turned around for vixiecat upon accepting a life-changing job as a camp counselor.
Roryshah's family went from having many fancy cars to having one sensible car.
When my Dad was sued and we went from having 3 Mercedes, a Lamborghini, and a Ferrari to having a Toyota Sequoia.
But sometimes, getting your privilege checked could be funny. Just ask eraser_dust.
I grew up in Indonesia, a 3rd world country where you'd definitely have maids if you're posting on reddit. I grew up thinking it's common to have multiple maids.
Moved to Singapore, a 1st world country where people still have maids, but it's more of an upper-middle class & above thing. Got assigned to sweep the floors by the teachers, and that was my first time holding a broom.
Swept it back and forth like in cartoons, and everyone was looking at me going, "Er, what the fuck are you doing?"
Turns out I was just creating a dust cloud around me. You have to sweep in one direction and gather all the dust into the dust pan.
Mind blown.
cloudwitch not only lost a comfortable lifestyle, but they learned an uncomfortable truth about their father.
Grew up in a fancy home, more rooms than you could ever need on a large property in a pretty rural area. I got everything I wanted whenever I wanted; huge plasma tv, dslr camera, motorbike, pony etc. I never knew what my parents really did for a living, I remember kids always asking what my parents did as a job in the playground and I never really knew how to respond.
I soon figured out what my parents did when my dad was arrested for drug trafficking and the house, cars and everything else was repossessed by the government as profits of crime. I now live in a shitty house that barely stands in a dodgy area of town, it definitely was a shock to the system but I'm adjusting just fine I guess.
d_ippy came clean about her dirty little dry cleaning secret.
When I was 16 my parents left for a week vacation and gave me money for the week. Since I didn't know how to do laundry (never even seen it done) I took all my clothes to the dry cleaner. Even my panties. The cleaners asked 3 times if I was sure I wanted them dry cleaned. I said yes. 2 days later I got 8 pair of panties safety pinned to individual hangers. My "laundry" cost about $90 that week. I just assumed this was all normal.
Just_Four_More acknowledges that being spoiled as a kid made becoming an adult even harder.
I was raised by my great grandmother. She was well to do, active well into her 80's and her world revolved around me. Ballet, gymnastics, all the music classes I could fit in my schedule. I had a menagerie of pets. Christmases were obscene. She catered to my every whim as a child.
Now that I'm an adult and my wonderful Gram has passed, I've learned that what I had was really unique. The world does not wait on me, I'm not special to everyone. I struggle with entitlement and narcissistic tendencies. It's isolating at times and I miss her.
HeatheryLeathery fell on hard times not once, but twice.
ermerly didn't realize how lucky she was until she compared her childhood with her husband's.
At 20, when I started dating my now husband. He was raised by a single mom who worked three jobs and they still barely got by, while my mom was a SAHM and my dad was/is a successful in his line of work.
Husband and I went to high school together. At the beginning of every school year my parents would easily drop $15k on me and my sister for school clothes; my husband would go with our HS secretary to get clothes that were paid for by the school district. I didn't even know that was a thing....
Edit: Yes, I am aware and I agree that this is a stupid amount of money to spend on clothing. To clarify, a large portion of that amount was spent on designer items/accessories.
One simple task served as Jaeshin's wakeup call.
Military bootcamp. Wanted to eat an orange, didn't know how to peel one. Slyly waited for someone else to start peeling before emulating him. End up with a badly squashed, untidily peeled orange ball that tasted like sour reality. BOOM. Evolved.
Bluestar280 still has money, but tries not to be a jerk about it.
Not sure if this is a serious question, but here's a serious answer.
When I moved out of my hometown for college, it was an absolute culture shock. I met other students who couldn't go to their dream schools because of how much it cost so they had to go in-state. They didn't eat out every other day. They bought secondhand clothes. Some had never travelled out of the country, some never even out of the state. Some were driving their parents' first cars. That shit blew my mind. This is how the rest of the 99% of the country lives.
I come from a filthy rich background, but I work hard to hide it so that you can't tell. I dress normally, I don't really talk about my background, I try to buy stuff on sale.
Sometimes it shows in ways that I can't help. I'd never seen shitty cars before going to college. I don't know how to drive cars with poor handling, and I always forget to turn off the headlights because I've never driven a car without automatic lights. I don't know how much anything costs because it doesn't matter. I'll still buy it anyway. I also don't really value money. $100 just isn't a big deal to me, but I know it means a lot to others, so I don't mind giving it to friends who are in need. But if you don't look too closely at my habits, you can't tell. And that was a conscious decision that I've made.
I'm grateful for never having to worry about money, and I likely never will. But I don't want to go back to my hometown because I think the lifestyle is unhealthy. There's so much entitlement, and the worst part is how rich people think that money defines your worth. I've seen them look at people with less money with such disdain, like their value as a person is less since they don't have as much money. It's disgusting. And I don't want to be associated with that kind of person.
I also loathe the comments that come with it like "if I were rich like you..." and I put an end to those immediately if they come up. I don't like being treated differently because of how much money I have, and I won't treat you differently for how much money you have. We are both people, and we are both worth something.
And all tobadiah_stane needed was little tough love to keep themselves in check.
Getting told "You're a very rude person." by an instructor at music summer camp after 11th grade. It was a huge reality check for me and really changed how I interacted with people.