meme
You know how often I run memes in my blog, but this one fascinates me. It's about privilege as one grew up, and running through my answers is the interesting thread that clearly while my father was (literally) a millionaire, I was raised as if I were the poor relative he wished to shut in a closet. Yes, I was raised as an only child and he still did that to me.
Gakked from tiellan. Acknowledgment to http://quakerclass.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-privilege-do-you-have.html. The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University.
The idea is to bold all the ones that pertain to you.
Father went to college
Father finished college [he also got his masters and doctorate while in the Navy]
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor. [several lawyers in the family, counting dad]
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home [only if we count my Golden Books in my room -- dad kept all his books in his law office, even his pleasure reading; there were almost none in the house at all as he said they cluttered up things]
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent [my mom; never ever my dad
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 [ballet]
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively [I can't afford nice clothes and I'm fat from all the meds I take -- so no go there]
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school [was in public school after jr. high]
Went to summer camp [after a certain age my father could no longer fob me off for 3 months a year to his mother in Seattle, so he sent me to came for 3 months all summer long up in the Poconos; I was fantastically lonely and miserable]
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels [until about age 8 -- after that I was left behind while they vacationed in places like Hawaii or Europe
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 [unless the school uniforms for grade school and jr high count, no -- my father wouldn't let me mother buy me non-uniform clothes (as that would "be a waste") so she saved what she could and bought me stuff from her household money]
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them [yeah, right; I could only dream]
There was original art in your house when you were a child [my father collected from some artists in the 50s; I inherited only a few of them, which I whisked out of his house before his third wife could stop me; as it was, she kept the really nice ones that she hated and then destroyed]
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single-family house [it was all about my father's status; when my mother left him, we lived in apts from them on until I left home at 17
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home [not the home I left at 17; that was an apt. By then my father had sold the family house and was building his dream house on Hilton Head Island, which his third wife kept and sold at a huge profit, taking all the money years later]
You had your own room as a child [I was an only child]
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 [when my dad would send me all alone cross-country to stay with his mother in Seattle every summer from age 4-9 (yes, 4 yrs old on a plane by myself)]
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up [my mother did; we lived in DC and the Smithsonian were all free; my father wouldn't let her take me to anything that cost money, though he went to places that cost money himself]
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family [my father told me every month how much "this family costs" him, including heat or a/c, food, clothing, etc. -- he'd sit down with the accounts and tell me this, even at age 4 (as far back as I can remember); bearing in mind all this time he was worth a couple of million dollars even in the 1960s]
Yeah, that man messed me up but good.
Gakked from tiellan. Acknowledgment to http://quakerclass.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-privilege-do-you-have.html. The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University.
The idea is to bold all the ones that pertain to you.
Father went to college
Father finished college [he also got his masters and doctorate while in the Navy]
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor. [several lawyers in the family, counting dad]
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home [only if we count my Golden Books in my room -- dad kept all his books in his law office, even his pleasure reading; there were almost none in the house at all as he said they cluttered up things]
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent [my mom; never ever my dad
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18 [ballet]
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively [I can't afford nice clothes and I'm fat from all the meds I take -- so no go there]
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school [was in public school after jr. high]
Went to summer camp [after a certain age my father could no longer fob me off for 3 months a year to his mother in Seattle, so he sent me to came for 3 months all summer long up in the Poconos; I was fantastically lonely and miserable]
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels [until about age 8 -- after that I was left behind while they vacationed in places like Hawaii or Europe
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 [unless the school uniforms for grade school and jr high count, no -- my father wouldn't let me mother buy me non-uniform clothes (as that would "be a waste") so she saved what she could and bought me stuff from her household money]
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them [yeah, right; I could only dream]
There was original art in your house when you were a child [my father collected from some artists in the 50s; I inherited only a few of them, which I whisked out of his house before his third wife could stop me; as it was, she kept the really nice ones that she hated and then destroyed]
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single-family house [it was all about my father's status; when my mother left him, we lived in apts from them on until I left home at 17
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home [not the home I left at 17; that was an apt. By then my father had sold the family house and was building his dream house on Hilton Head Island, which his third wife kept and sold at a huge profit, taking all the money years later]
You had your own room as a child [I was an only child]
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 [when my dad would send me all alone cross-country to stay with his mother in Seattle every summer from age 4-9 (yes, 4 yrs old on a plane by myself)]
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up [my mother did; we lived in DC and the Smithsonian were all free; my father wouldn't let her take me to anything that cost money, though he went to places that cost money himself]
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family [my father told me every month how much "this family costs" him, including heat or a/c, food, clothing, etc. -- he'd sit down with the accounts and tell me this, even at age 4 (as far back as I can remember); bearing in mind all this time he was worth a couple of million dollars even in the 1960s]
Yeah, that man messed me up but good.