DumpingSh1tandBeingKind2
39443
1766
12
Apr 22, 2025 5:38 PM
DumpingSh1tandBeingKind2
39443
1766
12
Oatmealman1
I'm poor AF, haven't worked in a few weeks so I've been able to have my boys every day. They really don't gaf about money, just spending time together. Their older sister is a different story, 14 and ONLY cares about what you can buy her. If you can't buy her stuff, you aren't worth her time.
Chriswagon1
There's a big pet store 15 mins drive from mine that has probably 200+ different spiders/reptiles/fish/parrots/rodents etc, my dad took me when i was younger and i enjoyed it, so i took my gf there for a cheap afternoon out once telling her it was basically a budget zoo(and she needed hay), now she's made a couple of trips herself when babysitting her familys many kids, it's become a local tradition
KevinBMW
I don't know if the person writing the post ever got their son a pet at Petco, but can you imagine the look on the teacher's face if the kid went to school and told everyone they went to the zoo and took one of the animals home with them? Fucking legend.
relsky
I only know how poor we were now, having lived that poor life well into my 30s. When I was a kid, I never would have guessed. There were routine "catch whatever you can" dinners where I'd eat a sandwich with the edge mold trimmed off, and dad would say he wasn't hungry.
RainbowFlerken
My mom would also take me to a little local pet shop in between errands.
jaydude22
When my sister and I were young kids my dad borrowed a tube for our boat. We had an aluminum boat with a 15 horsepower engine….. my dad (years later) said he felt like idiot pulling that thing with our crappy boat. Me and my sis said “ we were 10. We had no idea it was actually supposed to suck. It was too much fun.”
KatInTheCorner
My favorite times with my grandma were going to the pet store, going to the dollar store, and then going to the dollar theater. Could not have cost her more than 10 bucks for the whole day, gas included.
Warmblood
Me too. One summer we visited all the pet stores in the area. Went to malls, parks, thrift stores. Never bought much, but enjoyed it a lot as a kid.
zoltarpanaflex
I loved going to see the ducks at the park, my mom would pull me from school halfway into the day saying I had an appointment- but what I had an appointment for was to go feed the ducks without my siblings to have a little Mom Time. I remember that quite a lot.
VictusVonGuyver
I didn't need to cry, but this did. Reminded me of my little sister, she still remembers me walking her up school, take care of her, and taking her out for ice cream even though I was a broken mess at the time and our home a disaster.
It made me feel like I didn't go through all of that for nothing, that if helped her become an adult.
ArmedandOverclocked
There used to be some banger pet shops in my area with fish sections that were legit better than the DC "aquarium"
TNSCLuotaMEa4fVN
The love, not the lack!!!
OhIfIMust
Dude, the aquarium section at the local pet store was one of my favourite places: Dark, blue, bubbly, and full of fishies and pirate skeletons!
PersonalityFire
https://youtu.be/SIQ3DfHrd60?si=CR73nOzKU3jwKO-l
LurkerWerewolf
Oh my god I love you so damn much.
aurifex
That's sweet. My parents drove me everywhere and then left me in the car for hours while they drank in the bars
swatz
So once when i was a kid my mom told me we were going to have a treat for dinner! Cheese sandwiches! I fucking loved it and we watched tv and she read to me before I fell asleep. When i was a teen i brought it up, that i LOVED our cheese sandwich nights. She laughed and said I'm glad. We were broke and I looked in the fridge to make dinner and all we had was cheese and mayo... and bread on the counter.
Loved that woman. She worked her ass off as a single mom.
tythiss
Ooo, that is so relatable it made me cry. All I want to be is a good dad.
Lavawight
I just had to have my dog put to sleep (very old, and had cancer) and this helps a little. Always feel like I should have done something more and maybe they could have lived longer, even if I couldn't
peapod480
It's always hard to make that decision. I'm sorry.
LucilleWhoKnowsNot
When my son was 4 he loved watching paving. We did that for a whole summer. Free entertaining
Warmblood
My brother, my cousin, and I were all fascinated by garbage trucks as kids. Weekly ritual watching the garbage truck do its thing.
TheRealLouzander
Many of my favorite memories from growing up are just of my dad telling me stories about his childhood. They weren't even especially eventful, but I looked up to him so I loved them as much as an movie or comic book.
arthurvanhoudt
Nice things can be little things!!
VindictiveBathToaster
One of my favorite memories was building sand castles with my grandfather until mom took away the urn.
Lexgeddon
VindictiveBathToaster
At least someone appreciates that joke.
AnotherSemanticArgument
Fuck I miss my mom.
hayeszc84
Every summer my dad would get a pick-up truck full of sand and cut little shapes from scrap 2x4 boards to play with in the sand for my sister and me. It was great. Some of my favorite memories!
Saxytimes
My parents were well of government workers who went on vacations every year and tons of gifts at Christmas but I grew up feeling disconnected, lonely, with no support system or emotional safety. I've spent my whole adult life battling anxiety and depression, isolating behaviors and more loneliness. Their money didn't do shit for me and I resent gifts from them
minant
Similarly, sending me to boarding school cost quite a bit of money, I'm sure, but I almost never saw my parent there *or* when I went home for the holidays, which had a variety of knock-on effects, none of them conducive to healthy relationships with my family.
RTK4740
Once when I went back home during a college visit, my mom asked me what I would like for her to make for dinner. I eagerly replied with a childhood staple: chipped beef on toast. (Cut up lunchmeat with a flour/butter/milk sauce on toast.) No she said firmly. "We ate that because we were poor. Let me make you something good... Like lasagna." But I wanted chip beef on toast. I didn't know we were that poor. I just loved her meals.
TheHolyFatman
Oh I lost everything during the 2008 recession and we struggled to make everything appear normal for our daughter, who had just started high school. She's in her 30s, now and said while she knew we didn't have much, we at least tried to give her as much as we could.
DavidBrooker
Not quite as extreme, but when I was little I had apparently talked all the time about Disneyland. My parents ended up taking me to Galaxyland - an amusement park in a mall in Edmonton, albeit quite a big one for a mall - and I don't think I minded the difference one bit.
DavidBrooker
For context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxyland
thorinc
Hey, you came to my town! It might've been called Fantasyland when you were here as a kid, I can't remember how long ago it was renamed. Did you do the Mindbender?
CairoLen
I did! I did the Mindbender in May 1986. I was 12. You wanna guess how hard I overreacted a month later? 💀
thorinc
Yeah, those poor souls, what a terrible way to die.
WhichOneIsPink25
I did. Got tunnel vision lol
geisterscheinwerfer
ONION!!!!
geisterscheinwerfer
here ... take my v-hug and love to the great mom like you!
twoamartist
I never knew how poor we were. I was forever grateful to them for how hard they worked.
breadedfishstrip
Like when you realize all your favorite childhood meals are "poverty casseroles"
twoamartist
Peanut butter sugar toast. On Wonder Bread!
SwedishGuyYesIDoHaveLongBlondHairWhy
One of my favourites was "hot sandwiches", which was just bread we put in the oven for a while, with something on
vegivamp
When mom made the local equivalent of Mac& cheese, and always topped the dish with franks before grilling it, and often put boiled eggs in as well.
I still make it that way to this day, but I was an adult when it hit me that she was just adding cheap protein.