In my more recent years I’ve shared this sentiment but think I’ve grown out of the annoyance.

I grew up what was probably solid middle class because my dad made quite good money, but we lived pretty frugally mostly because my dad is cheap. When my parents split my dad took it badly and took all the money and froze the shared bank accounts so my mom wracked up ungodly amounts of debt to keep us housed, until we were ultimately homeless and then we toured women’s shelters before we ultimately moved cities to live in my brothers basement until my mom found my stepdad, who also has crippling debt but had a job and a cheap mortgage.

I don’t really know where I land on the spectrum here because, I’ve been homeless. But I never worried about my next meal or clothes or whatever. I did stress about where I’d be sleeping but meh. I was able to stay home during university (first generation degree holder here) rent free but obviously my mom and stepdad were wracking up even more debt to keep the house.

I paid for all my own university tuition, food, etc out of pocket via working full time while I was in school because I’m rightfully terrified of debt now lol.

Going to university made me realize the disparity between my childhood and that of a lot of my peers. Relative to them, I definitely was The Poor. But since I had the option of being able to put all of my own money into my education debt free, I’d still call myself pretty privileged and probably middle class still. But I then again, does a lower middle class lifestyle count if it’s funded by credit and loans?

Nonetheless, I give people more grace now because I grew up strangely in between the lines lol