“Wait… You Don’t All Have This?”: 40 Wholesome Moments Of Privilege Realization

Grew up comfortably in a very wealthy suburb because of frugal parents -- the quality of my public school education. Because the school district is funded by property taxes and there was a conscious decision to focus resources on a single high school with world class facilities, I had opportunities and experiences that are unfathomable to others. I always knew my experiences weren't normal, but I had no how truly outside the norm they were.

I'm not exactly 'rich', but my father is a really successful businessman so he actually keeps like 5 families afloat all by himself.

I thought that was actually a normal thing with families.

I was actually pretty painfully aware of it. My nanny (thankfully) constantly told us how lucky we were. I actually grew to be ashamed of and embarrassed when my dad picked us up at our (private) school with his porsche. But private school in a wealthy area means that most everyone was at least upper middle class (if you had a scholarship). My classmates complain about how many of their peers have legacy at Stanford and Harvard.

When people kept joking about how many instruments are in my house. Also when my parents bought me a half ounce of gold for maintaining close to a 3.0 GPA.

I thought different towns just had different lifestyles. In one, everybody was the practical farming type that didn’t need luxury. In the other, most kids go on international vacations during breaks and everybody got a car at 16. Only the rich kids got new cars, everyone else got a hand me down car. Apartments were for 20-25 year olds and nobody else.

This didn’t even last through high school, but yeah, I did not realize how much of a wealth bubble I grew up in.

When I got to college and was one of a few people who didn’t have loans/have to work a part time job to be there. My parents had a very frugal, low-key lifestyle so I didn’t realize that having my college covered was very unusual and rich!

I had never thought of myself as upper class as a kid, I had a single dad who was a firefighter and lived in NY.

Moved to MT when I started high school and thought a lot of it was just more exposure coming from a developed area to rural. Mentioned I had a nanny because of my dad's work hours, she'd come stay at our house overnight most nights. This blew people's minds.

Also just regular exposure to good food, especially seafood. Might have been the area again, but most people out here hadn't tried lobster or mussels.

Probably when my parents started getting really nice cars. Dad bought Ferrari’s and we moved into a million plus dollar house when I was 13.

When 3/4 of my college classmates had student debt, but my parents bankrolled my tuition.

Saved them a lot by going to a cheaper school, got my degree used 10% of what I learned. It was an awkward 4 years.

Not wealthy but solid upper middle class. First day of college I was standing in line to buy books, this lady asked if I would like a deferment slip. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. I asked what it was, she smirked and went to the next person without answering. Blows my mind to this day how many people used student loans to pay tuition at a state school.

First month in college, i over heard a girl calling another girl spoiled cos she got $300/month from her parents.
I was literarily getting 5 times that. And my tuition and board was already fully paid for. I just kept walking like I heard nothing.

I didnt have a car though cos my parents didnt think it was safe. I didnt want the hassle either.

Also, my married siblings all having live-in nannies n I kinda thought it was normal.

When I had a friend over to my house (we had 7 people living in there, all family) and she yelled at me because 'I never told her that I was rich'. Was very weird, I was about 14.

I wouldn't say born into a wealthy family but at a young age, my mother received massive compensation from the government and other stuff that since a young child I was able to see what it was like being poor to suddenly able to afford what you wanted. Met quite a few people in my life and heard and seen the struggles of not having money, it put me down especially when I used to think I had it rough.


It really made me think twice about a lot of things and that money and greed can change a lot of people when others like distant family realise you have money.

In elementary school Spanish class when I was asked how big my house was (sounds weird but we were just learning adjectives) and someone said "very very very big". Also learning the term trust fund and being like oh yeah, of course I have that.

Just the amount of the latest and greatest stuff I had at my house compared to what my friends had at theirs. We replaced things as we got bored of them, not when they stopped being usable.

I worked in college because I wanted some fun money and experience for my resume and could quit my job if I didn't have enough time to study. My friends worked so they could pay rent.

I grew up upper-middle class in a neighborhood and in schools with the same demographic. I didn’t realize how different my life was growing up until my parents financially cut me off because I had graduated college and their “investment and commitment to supporting (me) was finished”.

I feel like I’ll be scrambling until the day I die at this rate and still never be able to get back to the middle class.

When I was told I was going to boarding school despite living in a top ten school district in my state.

A friend of mine was surprised I didn't have $20's and $100's randomly around my room in case I wanted to go shopping. Absolutely shocked it wasn't normal to go to Europe a few times a year.

When I was about 5 and I saw the staircase at my friend's/neighbors house going up to the third story. It was the first 3 story house I'd ever seen and she lived a block away. My parent's always said we were upper middle class.

My parent's house is worth about 4 million. My dad makes 5x that each year with a company that has a 73% profit margin. Along with my 5 siblings, I have a 9% stake in the company. I make 6x what I do at my $80k job in the stock market. I won't see a dime of that till age 50 though unless I take a "loan" out.

I'm smart and work my a*s off. I just don't really need to. I'm also super cheap like my dad. No fancy car and my vacations are camping. The last time I ate out was probably 3 months ago. It helps that I can cook healthier, better, and cheaper meals.