Childhood Stressors

It is often said that children of this time don't have half the stressful events or life as children from my parents time. I know me personally, I defiantly didn't, but here are still some out there that had hard lives that are my age. 

When my mom and dad were growing up as young, mixed kids they were the image of poverty. My mom was the older daughter of a maid and construction work, while my dad was the product of a maid and her boss. Both grow up hard and had families that struggled just to have food and fresh water. I can remember my mom telling us stories of her upbringing. One story still makes me cry to this day and is one of the main reasons I want to open a homeless/food service shelter. Her story started when she was in middle school and her family would come to the local middle school (which I had attended) and they would take bags of cafeteria food/trash home. They would sort this trash taking out hot dogs and old hamburger patties and rinsing them to freeze for dinners. Some would have unopened milk bags that were also rinsed and saved. When they were lucky they would find forks, spoons, and knives that were accidentally thrown out by the students (my mom still has some of this silver ware). The rest of the food would be reheated outside and feed to the pigs, so they wouldn't have to pay for feed. This story makes me understand that poverty is not something the "others" suffer from; it's something anyone can go through and live. My mom struggled most of her childhood, being the second mother for her 11 siblings and even staying home until she was 27 bringing her pay check to assist her parents. She also tells the story of how her and her siblings saved for months to purchase a 2$ can on Manwich, because the commercials made it look so delicious, but when they got it home and opened it they didn't have enough to get the meat to go with it (they didn't know it was a two part meal). Many kids my age have no clue what that type of life is; they see money as not important and don't know the struggle some people have for the 2$ can of Manwich. Growing up my parents made us have a 5 acre garden for vegetables and fruits, we went fishing and hunting for meats; no we didn't have to do that financially, but to teach us about life.

 As an example of someone my age living in poverty, would be my husband. Growing up his parents also struggled to put food on the table and clean clothes on his back. His dad worked at Church's Chicken and his mom was a stay-at-home mom taking care of 5 kids. Mr. Logan would bring left over chicken and sides home any time they had them available, but some nights they just had bread and water. He had to wear his sisters' hand-me-down shoes and pants to school; where the kids were horribly cruel. My husband still to this day has confidence issues with being able to have the nicest things for our family. My son has to have name brand clothing and diaper bags, we go on lavish trips, and he makes sure I need for nothing; all because he knows how it feels to have nothing. I personally, grew up on a budget, I love going to the Goodwill's and Thrift shops, he on the other hand refuses to wear anything second hand or not name brand. We grew up in drastically different lifestyles, my parents giving me the world and his giving him what they had. I can appreciate his views and he understands mine, but we still struggle with raising our son to understand,  just because we have it doesn't mean to be mean to those who don't.

On one of a vacations, we went to Jamaica Island. When you land on the Island everything is
extremely nice and "shiny" it seems prefect. However, when you journey outside the golden gates you enter an island of hell. Outside the tourism gates, one sees the true nature of Jamaica; poverty, gangs, homeless, and people begging for any type of help you can offer them.  The only really income on the island is tourism and drugs; there is only the really rich and the extremely poor. Surprisingly, the people we met outside the gates were rather upbeat and loved life; I couldn't up but think they didn't really know the other life to even be able to miss it. I was immediately disgusted by the cultural differences with the same group and didn't want to give my money to the people in the gates. My husband and I decided to venture outside the gates the entire trip, attempting to remain safe at all times (when they knew/assumed you were of wealth, they would kidnap or rob you). We ate at the small street cafes and purchased clothes and gifts from shack stores. The trip that started as a vacation, ended as an eye opener to our life. When we got home we decided to do more volunteer work for the homeless and food shelters. I started a program at my school to feed the needy students and their families especially around holidays. I know these are small accomplishes, but we have to start somewhere to eventually make a big differences. That one meal for a student could be a life saver.