36 Parents That Took Care Of Poor Strangers And Changed Their Lives Forever

This reminded me of the story I read here about a mom always making two sandwiches for lunch for her son. He would give one sandwich to his best friend since they always ate together. Only when he grew up he found out that his mom knew his best friend's parents were druggies or something, and that probably was the only good meal he got all day.

I grew up on the opposite end of this, parents were well off. At Christmas when we went shopping for gifts for my friends, my mom made me pick out extra presents (male and female) and give them to the poorest kid/quiet kid/bully to make sure every kid in the class felt like they had a friend and weren't left out. It was extremely embarrassing for me at the time, I hated it. Now, as an adult, I'm grateful that my mom made me do this every year. It taught me to recognize and be appreciative of others, and I think I became a much nicer overall person for it. I hope that those people are like you and look back at it fondly.

In 8th grade my whole class was going for a graduation trip and we had to fill out that trip consent form. My teacher pulled me to the side and asked me why I hadn't turned mine in. I told him I didn't have the money. The next day I got called into the principal's office and was told that I would get to go on the trip.

I was poor growing up but I grew up in an area where everyone was poor (born in the 80s in a small town in Scotland) so my neighbourhood we all kind of pulled together.

Unfortunately my dad was the local criminal/alcoholic, I can remember eavesdropping on my mum talking to her friend about how my teacher actually offered to babysit me and my sisters whilst my mum worked her night cleaning job when my dad was on one of his many stays in prison.

I never really understood the significance until I was older.

So when i was younger i lived in China, my dad had to escape the country due to political persecution. My mom was laid off and lived on early "pension" they called it. We sometimes didn't have money for breakfast, and needed to feed me food.

Now regardless you believe a god exist or not, i to this day still believe in divine intervention to good people:

We would walk home sometimes (obviously my mom didn't tell me and i was too young to realize), we would find ten yuan or 5 yuan lying right at our front door. We didn't have a neighbour to the right of our hall so no one could have dropped their money accidently, so either it was the neighbour on our left or the money magically appeared outta nowhere. Everytime it was the exact amount to feed me at the breakfast market.

I know it might be stupid to some of you guys to think that a divine being is doing it ,but in my mind God is real, and i am thankful for it everyday.

This is turning into a mum appreciation thread, so don't mind me joining in. Our house was always the "everyones welcome" house. There were 3 of us kids anyway, but every night we'd have 1-3 kids extra for dinner. Both my sister and I also had a friend who often felt unwelcome in their home and they stayed with us a lot. My sisters friend actually stayed with us for weeks. One of my friends once called me super late saying her mum had kicked her out and my mum had zero hesitation of letting her come stay with us until needed.

Always been grateful for having such a fab and caring mum, but her generosity and caring nature towards so many other people is what makes her an actual great person in general. I'll def be having an open house policy for my kids and their friends too!

I was that same poor kid growing up. My friends' mom always treated me like her own and would fix meals and snacks while i was there, even pack up food for me to take home, and on several occasions invited me over on thanksgiving and Christmas so that i could have something to eat. Often whenever i was there to play video games with my friend i hadnt eaten in days. Ill never forget my "mom" who was more of a mother to me than my birth mom. She not only fed me, but made me feel valued and for as long as i stayed over i felt at home.

I grew up in a similar situation, it was the people like that mom that ignored where I lived, ignored my parent’s names in the police logs and treated me like a regular kid that made me realize I was not the situation I was in.

It’s so easy to judge someone instead of actually taking the time to make a difference.

I just saw a story of a dad whose son was being bullied by a kid at school. Instead of getting mad at the bully, he got permission from his parents to talk to him. He ended up finding out that the kid was bullying people because he was being bullied for the clothes he wore because his parents weren’t well off. The dad bought the kid a bunch of a clothes and made the two boys talk it out. Now they’re friends!

I grew up poor as well, didnt realize it untill about 6th grade. Used to go dumpster diving for fun as a kid while my mom would do lookout so we wouldn't get caught, and to me that would sometimes be the highlight of my day. My best friend at the time had some awesome parents, they knew of my situation the first time they took me home. That same summer they started letting me stay the night for a week at a time, only bringing me home to get new clothes or if they had something important that they couldn't bring me with them to. When they eventually moved away when i was in 3rd grade i realized how much time i spent with them and how much they had been doing for me.

When I was in 8th grade, my home room/English teacher and I formed a special friendship. She knew my mom wasn’t in the picture. We had a formal dance and middle school graduation coming up, so she took me shopping. My dad gave me enough money to buy one dress, so my teacher paid for my formal dress. We went and ate pizza with her family after.

Same bud. I feel ya. One time I was so poor that my clothes were absolutely gross and disgusting. One time at a sleepover, the mom of the kid took me a side, showered me and put me in clean clothes. Will forever be thankful tonthat mom because it saved me of a night of teasing.

I’m in the middle of that situation right now. I’m 16 and both my parents are struggling. My dad doesn’t have a job, and my mom works at a law attorney with an asshole boss. My friends parents have helped tremendously and I cannot thank them enough.

I was not poor at all and lived in upper middle class white people land, but had the same thing happen to me at a birthday party. My mom was a bit detatched, and I grew up with my friends mother's as surrogates. One of my good friends, his mom used to pack him extra gushers in his lunch bag for me. Not only did she do this kindness for me, but my friend resisted eating them himself too!

I remember back when I was about 6, I had a birthday party with my friends and at some point during the party I was looking for one of my friend.

I heard my dad speaking with my friend's family, so I went to my front yard, where I saw my dad give my friend 50$ to put inside a birthday card his family brought.

To be honest I only realized the situation about 10 years later when I remembered it.

I would have never thought about that my friend was poor. I remember my buddy being happy to give me the card, 50$ as a kid was a lot ! That was a cool move from my dad.

Well, I know what I'm doing on my daughter's next birthday.

She's very good friends with a refugee in our village - he's one of 6 kids being taken care of by a single father. The boy is out later than everyone else, going from friend's house to friend's house looking for someone to play with and somewhere to get more attention than he does at home. Some days, we are busy with something else or my daughter doesn't want to play and it is a bit heartbreaking to send him away.

He is a great and happy kid, well-behaved and creative. I never really thought about how he might be aware of what he doesn't have compared to everyone else, but I think this is a perfect way to help him to deal with that if it is an issue for him.