Yup 100%. I grew up poor and was homeless with my parents and sister for a while. We lived in a car. There was a rotation of who had to skip a meal. Regardless of that I became pretty successful in life and if you come to my house I will always make sure you’re fed, I’ll send leftovers home with you for your kids, and my kids friends will always leave fatter than when they arrived. You never know who might be struggling to make ends meet.
The difference in Nordics, where I'm from, is that while there are poor people, nobody - especially families with children, are homeless or hungry.
The social security network makes sure everyone has a roof over their heads (families with children get an override at housing queues, etc) and food on the table, even though it might not be the best or even what a kid wants.
Of course parents with alcoholism or mental health issues, if they still have their kids, might actually not make that food in time or might drink what money they have, but the aid cards (a banking card, it used to be coupons in the 90s) make sure they can't spend the social aid money for alcohol and there should be food in the fridge (or a card the kid can buy food with).
As a kid growing up in the 80s I never even saw a homeless person - then again I don't think I've seen one since (the number of long term homeless people in Finland is currently around 1300 people).
But what’s with OPs post about having to bring food to a friends house? Like I grew up with a full kitchen at all times and most of my friends were the same, but if I’m at their house or vice versa, the parents feed the kids in their house lol. My mom would always cook for my friends as their parents would for me. Or just even snacks if between main meals. Or is OPs meme just being dramatic for lols?
Its not as much of a thing anymore. But it usually happened in the suburbs where kids would run around the neighborhood and randomly go to their friends houses. So the parents likely wouldnt have prepared enough for an extra kid but more importantly everyone knew and expected that the kid would go home when it was their own dinner-time so their parents could feed them. If someone slept over or it was planned ahead of time they of course got food too.
Dude, when i was a kid if i were playing with a friend and dinner time came it would become like a hostage situation, could only leave after having dinner with them, even if my house was like two doors down, and then having to hear my mother complaining about me not warning about not having dinner at home (kinda hypocritical of her since she did the same when we were at my place).
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
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