"Today, I did something I never thought I’d do. I yelled at my son for being hungry."

[NickB79]

11. This scars people for life, long after the poverty ends

I read this story with an overwhelming sense of familiarity. I've been here before, I've lived in that sort of household. Not as the mother, but as the child. I grew up in a place like this. No matter how your parents try to hide their worries from you, you know. You can SENSE their worry, their constant anxiety. You see them pick fights with each other over the dumbest things, because they have no other outlets to vent their frustrations. You start fighting with your own siblings to do the same.

And even after you grow up, move out, get a good job, and think you've left that life behind, you discover you haven't. You find yourself stocking the pantry with 100 cans of beans "just in case." You berate yourself for DAYS for being wasteful if you discover a container of moldy leftovers in the back of the fridge you have to throw out, or spending $2 on a couple of Dollar Menu burgers. You catch yourself getting angry with your wife when she treats herself to a new outfit, even though she works hard, hardly ever treats herself and it's well within your budget, just because you hate to spend money on ANYTHING that doesn't seem like an essential.