I used to go the DisneyLand every year, maybe even 2-3 X a year. But only one day trips. I always wanted to spend a whole week, satying at the DisneyLand Hotel, etc.
So, last May, I did exactly that. We went for 3 nights/4 days, saw and did everything, and stayed at the Disneyland hotel.
Not really something I didn’t have growing up, but when I was growing up, we were never allowed to wear new shoes out of the store. I never understood why. I always let me daughter wear her new shoes out of the store.
I can also relate to some of the things above:
and add to the list:
Ah, I thought of something that I way overcompensate for as an adult.
My dad didn’t like sage. He didn’t like it at all. So we never ate breakfast sausage or had sage in stuffing or anything like that.
Now, I’m a sage fiend. I buy extra sagey sausage. I put truckloads of sage in stuffing, in soup, in casseroles. I’m frankly a menace with the stuff, but I love it. Out of my parents and their six kids only one, me, likes sage.
I drink milk by the gallon,as a kid we could only afford to put it in tea or on cereal.
I could be a case study for this thread. Growing up I was in the lower-middle class…nice house but not a lot of money for the toys I really wanted. It didn’t help that my neighbors were fairly well off and got lots of interesting things to play with that I never would, chief amoung them would be fast moving machines like go-carts and boats. So now I have a nice little collection at home…quad for off road riding, a motorcycle for the street, and a boat for summers on the river. This extends to other areas as well like video games, computers, and electronics in general. And I intend to pass this theory of enjoying fast moving machines and electronics to my kids so they don’t grow up over-compensating like I do.
I just read this whole thread and would like to restate my overcompensatory tendencies to include just about everything listed here.
A house full of noisy kids!
I grew up an only child, and a “latchkey kid” to boot, starting in first grade. I walked myself to school, came home by myself after school, and then did my homework or fooled around by myself for a couple of hours before my Dad got home around 5pm.
I now have three kids of my own (aged 9, 7 and 5), and actually would love to have one or two more, but my wife put a stop to that.
As a kid (coming from a mentally disabled, low-income family), I had many wishes centering around money and what it could buy. I was ashamed of my cheap bike, cheap skates, lack of video games, lack of a car in the family, lack of vacations abroad - all things my friends didn’t have to worry about.
Now that I’m in my thirties, I’m as stingy / rational / ascetic monetary-wise as my parents ever were. Go figure.
Nicely wrapped gifts. For Christmas we would use newspaper for wrapping, and if you got the color comics section, THAT was fancy. Birthday gifts were never wrapped.
I now have 7 or 8 rolls of fancy paper, ribbons and bows of every color, and I have so much pretty tissue for bags that I don’t even save the stuff I get in my own presents from others. I’ve had friends ask me to come over and do their gifts for them because I am so good. I can wrap any shape, coordinate any paper, etc. I love it.
Also, non-skim non-powdered milk and real butter. Too expensive for our big family, but now the only kind I buy.
Air Conditioning/Heat - My parents thought they were poor (they weren’t), and my house was a freaking sauna in the summer. In the winter we couldn’t light candles for fear the flames would freeze. Today, my house in the summer is like a walk-in freezer, it’s so cold, and I keep it nice and toasty in the winter.
NOT Watching Football/Baseball/Basketball Just Because It’s On - My stepdad was a sports nut and would watch the most obscure “sports” just for the sake of having some kind of sporting event on the TV.
Flying - Gone are the days of 2-day drives. I have a strict, 3 1/2 hour limit when going to a destination. If it takes longer than 3.5 hours to drive there, we’re flying.
Staying on-Property at Disneyworld - My family always preferred to stay at campgrounds or cheap Kissimmee hotels when going to WDW. Mrs. Homie and I have vowed to stay on-site every time.
New computers every two-three years instead of every 6-7. Along with this, video games for as long as I please.
Going out for dinner whenever I damn well feel like it.
Relaxing. This is the big one–my parents own a small general store, and they were the type who work 80-hr weeks to make it work. I spent a lot of my high school years working 4pm-9pm on Friday nights and Saturdays.
It’s not so much what one lacked in their childhood overall, it was just the one or two things that seemed out of kilter.
Video games and the internet. I rarely had a current game system, and we didn’t get a PC until I was 16, and that was a laptop Dad used for work. Actually, that’s a lie. We did get a computer when I was 10 or 11–A C64. This would’ve been somewhere around '96, so it was pretty outdated even then.
Now, I’m a WoW addict, we have a PS2, Wii and 360, and as soon as it’s feasible we’re going to upgrade my computer since WotLK upped the requirements a bit.
For me it was Sugary cereals and brand name shoes/clothes. The Honey Bunches of Oats in the cabinet are my kids’ and the Reese’s Puffs are mine. And if you value your limbs don’t even look at my Cinnamon Life. I won’t buy tennis shoes if they aren’t Nike, Adidas, Reebok or New Balance. Even if they are really nice and comfortable.