I was the kid that the teachers took pity on. More than once (in elementary school), they scrounged through the lost-and-found to get me something I needed. When I showed up for school during a snow shower wearing a pair of summer sandals, they gave me proper shoes and a pair of gloves. I was a ‘free lunch’ kid, and back then you had to present a bright orange ticket to the lunch lady for your free lunch, so everyone knew you were poor. Most of my real friends were just as poor as we were, but it wasn’t much fun to be a poor kid at a rich school.
As I got older, my mom always had me answer the phone and lie to the bill collectors, and our power got turned off due to non-payment fairly regularly. I got my first job at the age of 14, and paid for all my own clothes, medical expenses (including long overdue ones incurred before I started working) and gave my mother some money for rent from that point on.
The whole experience taught me many lessons, mostly of the ‘what not to do’ kind. It has made me very grateful that my children have had a very different experience than I did.