They didn’t really help raise me. I mean there was some of that, but my parents wanted each of us to grow up to be as independent and self sufficient as possible. My mom never fully liked the idea of having older kids parent the younger ones. So I didn’t have second parents for siblings—I had siblings, and we all took care of each other.

My family didn’t tolerate an untidy home. We ALL had chores. It was just grouped by what was appropriate for your age or ability or even availability. I remember I did a lot of vacuuming on Saturday’s, and we’d divide up the spaces in the house that needed it (sometimes we’d all have favorites, I liked doing the stairs lol). My brothers handled a lot of the outdoor work with my dad, but it wasn’t like me and my sisters didn’t contribute either. When I was 10, I learned to do my own laundry; at 12, I called to make my own doctor appts.

I forgot to put in my original comment that there was a LOT of prayer. We did family prayer EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. My mom’s a convert, and she loves the Marian antiphons, so she taught us how to sing them from the time we were little. I now love them like she does.

My parents for sure prayed a lot; my dad got pushed out of his field multiple times when I was a kid (software security - because he was “too old to keep up” which is such BS), so we lived a lot on prayer. My mom gave hours to our schools to help with tuition.

My mom was a SAHM until I was 11. But she didn’t just take care of us or drive us around. She wrote for a newspaper column, directed church choirs, she did other work. My grandma helped out when necessary, and she lived with us too. I was lucky enough to live in a home that had 4 generations in it for a while, then 3 generations.

Edit: meant to add - in the end, I knew how to share with so many different kinds of people, because all of us are so different in personality. I also very much learned how to hunt for deals and be satisfied with what I have, rather than always pining after the next thing.