is your family poor?

[kittycat18]

No my mum was a nurse and dad was a manager of a company plus was a cabinet marker so middle class. We always had nice things growing up. Too spoilt at times to be honest

 

[tasha41]

I guess my parents are middle class- they make about $160k. They both always have new cars, they have a nice house, they have travelled... paid for all of my sister's education so far and helped with mine... I guess it's perception though, they were doing pretty well, but we didn't live in a nice new house in the suburbs and they didn't buy me a car as soon as I was old enough to drive like many of my classmates

Holy hell, 160k a year sounds like upper class to me.

Shiiit. I'd have to agree.

I guess it depends on how you spend your money.

Well firstly, it's not like they've made $160K since the day I was born. My dad got a big promotion when I was like 14, my mom hit her salary cap, my dad does work here and there for a large medical company in addition to his job. So I definitely grew up middle class, I have no idea what they made then, and I only know what they make now because I went to accounting school for a bit and I do their taxes now. They've always had good jobs- nice but small house, they never had major money problems like my OH's family, but we just didn't have a lot when I was growing up that the 'upper class' people I went to school with had.

No pool, no luxury cars- and no cars for us.. no family vacations (my PARENTS have been to Europe, Florida, east & west coast of Canada, Japan), 1 TV in 1 living room that my dad neverrr let us 'have a turn with' lol, strict Christmas spending rules ($200 per kid), no dishwasher (they finally got one when I was 18).. no cottage, shared a bedroom until I was 17, we didn't have tons of clothes or anything... the vast majority of my classmates had all or most of the above.

Cost of living is also high here- food, taxes, gas, everything costs more in Canada I SWEAR ... they paid into RRSPs and RESPs, employee health benefits, so that is a fair bit of your salary too..

 

[Becca xo]

I wouldn't say we was poor or rich we where comfortable and happy.

 

[17thy]

I guess my parents are middle class- they make about $160k. They both always have new cars, they have a nice house, they have travelled... paid for all of my sister's education so far and helped with mine... I guess it's perception though, they were doing pretty well, but we didn't live in a nice new house in the suburbs and they didn't buy me a car as soon as I was old enough to drive like many of my classmates

Holy hell, 160k a year sounds like upper class to me.

I though the same thing TBH. My mother who is a head of a marketing corporation just said "160K a year is most definitely upper class."

 

[17thy]

I guess my parents are middle class- they make about $160k. They both always have new cars, they have a nice house, they have travelled... paid for all of my sister's education so far and helped with mine... I guess it's perception though, they were doing pretty well, but we didn't live in a nice new house in the suburbs and they didn't buy me a car as soon as I was old enough to drive like many of my classmates

Holy hell, 160k a year sounds like upper class to me.

Shiiit. I'd have to agree.

I guess it depends on how you spend your money.

Well firstly, it's not like they've made $160K since the day I was born. My dad got a big promotion when I was like 14, my mom hit her salary cap, my dad does work here and there for a large medical company in addition to his job. So I definitely grew up middle class, I have no idea what they made then, and I only know what they make now because I went to accounting school for a bit and I do their taxes now. They've always had good jobs- nice but small house, they never had major money problems like my OH's family, but we just didn't have a lot when I was growing up that the 'upper class' people I went to school with had.

No pool, no luxury cars- and no cars for us.. no family vacations (my PARENTS have been to Europe, Florida, east & west coast of Canada, Japan), 1 TV in 1 living room that my dad neverrr let us 'have a turn with' lol, strict Christmas spending rules ($200 per kid), no dishwasher (they finally got one when I was 18).. no cottage, shared a bedroom until I was 17, we didn't have tons of clothes or anything... the vast majority of my classmates had all or most of the above.

Cost of living is also high here- food, taxes, gas, everything costs more in Canada I SWEAR ... they paid into RRSPs and RESPs, employee health benefits, so that is a fair bit of your salary too..

Holy crap! $200 was the budget for my entire 4 person family at Christmas.

 

[kittycat18]

Holy crap! $200 was the budget for my entire 4 person family at Christmas.

No my parents are middle class and earn $60,000 ($95,406) a year without bonus's. The budget for each child at Christmas is £200-£300 ($318-$477) and that's normal here Most children I went to school with and my brother went to school with got much more. One of my friend's got a jet ski for her 17th birthday... I'm not complaining. Just saying

 

[LauraBee]

If I'm honest, I don't think class comes solely from household income. It's the norms and values that come with it, as well as the "cultural capital".

If I won the lottery, I'd still consider myself lower class, because I know I'd feel and act completely differently from the people who were brought up in rich areas and who've always had money etc

But, yeah, just for comparison's sake, we'd always get like a couple of videos for Christmases and birthdays - so like £10 per child....

 

[TaraxSophia]

Not at all, it had nothing to do with my pregnancy, not to sound bad or anything but my family are quite wealthy....both my parents are lawyers. Im not saying your background has nothing to do with whether you will have children young but it is just 1 factor, not the main one. People from all different types of backgrounds get pregnant at a young age every day! The only reason you think it could be just the lower classes is that upper class and middle class people are ashamed and try to cover it up as best as possible. Im not saying this is true to everyone though, as my parents were and still are very supportive

 

[tasha41]

Holy crap! $200 was the budget for my entire 4 person family at Christmas.

No my parents are middle class and earn $60,000 ($95,406) a year without bonus's. The budget for each child at Christmas is £200-£300 ($318-$477) and that's normal here Most children I went to school with and my brother went to school with got much more. One of my friend's got a jet ski for her 17th birthday... I'm not complaining. Just saying

Exactly... I think when you are a kid you don't really understand what different jobs earn etc, and while I think part of my parents' thing was trying not to "spoil us"... I remember at Christmas when I was talking to friends hearing "Oh, that's it?" and them listing off way more gifts than I got. And I remember when I was a bit older lying saying I got more than I did etc. So, compared to the people I grew up with, we didn't have TONS, though we were always comfortable, fed, clothed, looked after..

I realize now how expensive clothes, groceries, etc are, I know people whose parents had to ask them for money to help with bills etc, who had to take PT jobs to help out rather than for spending money, but growing up I definitely did not feel well off at all. I hope that all makes sense somehow?

 

[kittycat18]

Exactly... I think when you are a kid you don't really understand what different jobs earn etc, and while I think part of my parents' thing was trying not to "spoil us"... I remember at Christmas when I was talking to friends hearing "Oh, that's it?" and them listing off way more gifts than I got. And I remember when I was a bit older lying saying I got more than I did etc. So, compared to the people I grew up with, we didn't have TONS, though we were always comfortable, fed, clothed, looked after..

I realize now how expensive clothes, groceries, etc are, I know people whose parents had to ask them for money to help with bills etc, who had to take PT jobs to help out rather than for spending money, but growing up I definitely did not feel well off at all. I hope that all makes sense somehow?

I know exactly what you mean. I suppose it all depends on where you are from because that sounds just like where I live. Girls at my school had an argument one day about how many toilets were in their house and how many boats their parents owned

 

[we can't wait]

Completely off topic, but Chloé, I love you siggy! Looks like it's Shannon's work? Cute!

Like I said before, I grew up poor... but my parents never let us feel poor on Christmas. They used to puts things on lay-away & pay them off over the course of the year. We also would get joint gifts. Like, instead of me getting a radio, it was for me and my 3 sisters to go in our room... and my brothers got one for their room... but it didn't 'belong' to one person, iykwim?

When I was little I just thought santa was really good to us... now that I'm older I realize that my parents saved up and worked really hard to make the holidays special for us.

 

[BlackBerry25]

In Canada, it is much more expensive. 400,000 buys you a shack here in Edmonton.
Me and B lived in a one bedroom apartment and we were making over 100k a year sans kids.

 

[kittycat18]

Completely off topic, but Chloé, I love you siggy! Looks like it's Shannon's work? Cute!

Thanks. Yeah Shannon's handiwork is right

 

[AriannasMama]

I'm not sure how much my parents made while we were growing up but I think our x-mas budget was about $100-250 per kid. We've only ever been on two big vacations in my life, three if you include flying out to Seattle for my brother's wedding. Now if I want to go visit him when my parents go I have to pay for my own plane ticket.

After I get my certificate from school and OH and I are on our own we SHOULD be making about 50k a year, hopefully we can live ok on that.

 

[bbyno1]

My mum was always quite a 'big' one for christmas and birthdays.
She would always get provident loans out.
She is still paying them off now..and they leave her struggling for the rest of the year iykwim?

 

[Mellie1988]

My mum is a nurse and my dad is a HGV driver and between them they earn a pretty good wage, so we was always quite well off, we used to goto Disney land Florida every year/every other year through out my childhood, went on school trips, got spoilt at xmas....

OH family was probably around the same, maybe his parents earn a little more (his mum is a social worker and his dad owns his own letting agency..where I work ) .

So to answer your question, no I don't think that coming from a lower or upper class upbringing has much of a say in teen pregnancies.

In my personal circumstances, the reason I became a teen mum was because I thought "it will never happen to me" and took the risk of not using protection ONE time...super sperm it wasn't anything to do with how I was brought up, at all.

x

 

[trinaestella]

Ugh, i hate sociology it's like everythings stereotyped.. but no, my family aren't poor.. we're middle classed

 

[MissMamma]

Ugh, i hate sociology it's like everythings stereotyped.. but no, my family aren't poor.. we're middle classed

i agree, having to study a load of sociologists atm for college

 

[annawrigley]

Ugh, i hate sociology it's like everythings stereotyped.. but no, my family aren't poor.. we're middle classed

Thats kinda the point of sociology lol

 

[AriannasMama]

Ugh, i hate sociology it's like everythings stereotyped.. but no, my family aren't poor.. we're middle classed

Thats kinda the point of sociology lol

Quite literally means the study of people and groups . Statistics will always come with that and whether you like them or not statistics are true, so no point in hating them.

Sociology is really interesting to me.