I'm sure a lot of you lovely people have had a similar experience.
My entire life, I was told at every life event, I was going to get fat.
"Just wait until you get out of highschool and stop doing year round sports, you'll go to college and get fat. Freshman 15."
Nope.
"Later, in college when it starts getting harder and stressful you'll put on weight."
Still nope.
"Now that you've graduated, when you get a real job and real stress you'll start to put on pounds."
Got a "real" job. Still not fat.
"Once you start a family and don't have time to workout, that's when it'll hit ya."
My kids 7.
"Now that you're over the hill, your metabolism is going to crash and there's no avoiding it."
Still got the same measurements as I did in college.
"Oh, well, erm... you're just one of the lucky ones."
What? No. This is not by chance. It's not juneticks, nor metabolism, and definitely not luck.
Point to flat toned stomach, greying body hair and all.
This was not an accident. My wife and I earned the bodies we have. It's your own fat faults you let yourselves use every excuse to join the subspecies. Take some goddamned responsibility.
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[–] NoRagrets 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
You only briefly touched this but it got me thinking, and apologies this being off topic;
I also come from a fairly wealthy family and from the outside it probably looked like I got anything I wanted but that's not the case at all.
I had a paper run at the age of 11. $17.50 per week
I dropped that when I went to high school but soon after got a job at a local market gardener. $7/hour
When I was 17 I got a job doing dishes/cleaning a bakery every second Saturday for $50/day
I've had a huge variety of jobs over the years, landscaper, cheese maker, road worker, but I've essentially been working since I was 10 years old.
Now, at 28, with no University/College/Tertiary education, I work in IT and get paid well for it.
That is how I was able to afford a Porsche at 26, my parents did not buy it for me, I worked for it.
Is this a common thing amongst others with "wealthy parents"?
And yes, I'm under no delusions that there are spoiled people whose parents do buy them anything they want but I suspect a lot of people have the "work for what you want" mentality instilled in them from a young age.
[–] Speshul_Sn0wflake 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
This. Thank you for that. Especially where you touched on the topic of "people on the outside looking in probably think you were spoiled."
I got that my entire childhood, still do now. "Well, my parent's aren't rich like yours, that is why I can't afford this and that." No. The reason you can't afford it is because you don't spend your money wisely, don't plan ahead, don't know how to save and so on. This was coming from an obeast I work with. We get payed the same, and very well might I add, although we shouldn't because fatty doesn't do much at all. I accomplish more in three hours than she does the entire day. The only thing I see her put any effort into is her take-out order.
Not only was I instilled with the "work for what you want" mentality growing up, my parents also taught me that "you are not entitled to anything in this life, you work for the things you want and the things you have. Nobody is going to hand them to you because you think you deserve it."
With my younger (7 years) sister's generation, I don't see this mentality at all. Its just "gimme gimme gimme nowwww" and if not its a fight and a sob story. All these kids will be so shocked when they enter the real world and realize that there isn't anybody to tell on when your feels get hurt, let alone someone who is just gonna cater to/help you because you think you deserve it.
[–] AnoInc [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
My parents were well off but lived quite frugally. My parents didn't let us know what the estate was worth until we were all out of school and started our respective careers. When we were old enough to work, that's what was expected. Payed our own way from then on. By the time a person is an adult. They should have earned and saved enough to go do anything. I left home the weekend after my highschool graduation with 2 grand and a 15 year old junker that I bought from a junk yard and got running again. Never accepted anything (save for small gifts) from my parents after that. I worked for that my entire adolescence and it should be enough (I don't know what 2 grand back then is equivalent to now) for anyone to start a new life anywhere.
[–] landwhaleintolerance 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
My parents are like this as well. They taught me early on to work for the things I wanted, even if they could afford them. Really instilled the value of spending smart and working hard. Now they pay for me to attend college, and it almost feels awkward, as if I don't deserve it since I am not paying for it. I tell them I appreciate it all the time and can only hope to do the same for my future kids someday. Hopefully they would view it the same way, as a gift, and not an entitlement.
But to answer your question, I believe there are many upper class parents who drill work ethic and personal responsibility from a young age.
[–] totalitarianism 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I think it depends. My family is technically wealthy, but not "one percent" wealthy. I'm just hypothesizing, but I feel like that makes a difference somehow. The thing is, my mother grew up POOR-- as in, nine kids in a Catholic family in Detroit poor-- and my father is a Marine. They didn't become wealthy until after they'd experienced many trials and hardships in their life, and they passed down the work ethic and values onto my sibling and I. I didn't start working until I was probably 17 (my sibling started at 13 I think), but the thing is, my first "job" was as an artist, which I got paid enough to sustain myself, and is still my profession to this day. It is NOT easy to make it as an artist. Most artists never make enough off their work to survive without another job. But I feel like I can really say it isn't some natural "talent" I have that allows me to live like this, it's the sheer hard work and sacrifice I was taught that makes this successful for me.