"It Never Leaves You" — Dad Says "Growing Up Poor" Creates Lifelong Scarcity Mindset

"Dad coaching us to lie to the bill collectors was a vibe."

May 31 2024, Published 11:17 a.m. ET

A TikToker named Blake (@blakeoftoday) posted a viral TikTok about the long-term effects of growing up poor and the way it affected his personality. In a video that comes with no audio, simply captions, he indexed all of the traits he is adopted as a result of growing up with out a lot of money as he spends time along with his family.

"I used to do this weird thing where I would have half of whatever I ate until I got home just in case just in case what ... I don't know, but it felt important at the time," he writes as he records himself walking along with his youngsters whilst he pushes a stroller. His clip then cuts to him having a look at a cup of meals.

"Maybe it was mom paying for groceries with hot checks or fixing whatever the car was making by turning up the Counting Crows in the tape deck it is a weird thing for a kid to feel like they need to do mostly because we never went without ... Moms always find a way," he mentioned, extolling the way his mom discovered a way to ensure he never went with out what he needed.

"But it was close most days and when it wasn't that feeling still didn't go away ... It sits inside of you, kind of like a worry but a lot like a flame these days, we're doing all right. Maybe the fire finally went out but there is a part of me that will always taste the smoke," he states, recording himself consuming a dinner he simply cooked for him and his children.

The clip then cuts to him riding on a Peloton, "The thing about being born rich or rather not poor," the caption reads because the digicam lens floats all through his furnished house, "Is that when you are broke, it feels like you are a tourist on a bad trip to a place that you don't belong. And the thing about being born the other way around is that as hard you work to escape it, it's always gonna kinda feel like home."

He adds in a caption for his clip: "This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. I guess it’s just that Rich Dad, Poor Dad thing but I relate to it so much differently now that I have kids of my own."

(Author talking right here) Poor is relative. I grew up accumulating cans and bottles to crush them for nickels. Bill collectors referred to as the landline at the house we couldn't afford. Sometimes we did not have electrical energy. There was a time we needed to boil water and let it cool right down to take baths and showers.

I do know what the effects of growing up poor for me are: Anyone who displays in the least of carelessness with my money or a scarcity of appreciation for my emotional and monetary investments is in an instant the enemy.

Superfluous purchases that aren't necessary to 1's livelihood or the success of their dreams are also a distraction and should be treated like a violent cancer.

Once you could have one thing and any individual or something makes an attempt to try and take it away, or you even get an inkling that this will occur, you grow to be a threatened cat backed into a nook. Your frame arches, your eyes slender, and you end up willing to die to protect what was once taken from you or you could dream of having as a kid, laying down in mattress staring on the ceiling underneath covers which were passed down multiple times over.

You hate those who embrace victimhood and put on it as a badge of honor. You hate those who glorify suffering as you have grow to be sick of it your self and had to appeal the ignominy of no longer being able to move to a convenience store with your friends. Not having the change for a can of soda from a vending gadget. Having 16-year-old "new" cars within the circle of relatives that you'd be embarrassed to roll up in next to the shiny new models your classmates would step out of each and every morning.

I get the place Blake's coming from and I believe that it creates a divide between those that were raised on gratitude and the chance to have a chance at a better life versus those that wouldn't even start to know what gratitude looks as if in that scenario.

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