I'm sorry your family had to struggle that much when you were growing up. I can't even imagine how tough that would be. I agree with your assessment of influencers—who often live in a bubble of wealth and privilege—trying to convince others to take huge risks like bringing life into the world without having the means to take care of it. Even those who grow up poor sometimes seem to forget what poverty is really like once they find a way to escape it. Also, just because they found success did doesn't mean everyone is capable of turning their lives around to that degree.

My Dad grew up in the kind of poverty you did. But we were what would be considered lower middle class growing up—my Dad was always there and he provided us with the basic necessities (and sometimes a little more). Still there's a certain mindset you have to find a way to grow out of. It's a mindset of "not being good enough" or "not belonging" that has to be overcome. People born into wealth and privilege don't have that barrier and can't understand what an advantage that is in life. It's difficult to think about anything other than your basic needs when satisfying those needs aren't a given. When I first found success I felt totally out of my element in certain situations. It took a long, long while to build that confidence. Sometimes I still have nightmares of losing everything and having to start from scratch again.

We're watching Call The Midwife now on Netflix and, although it's fiction much of it is closely based on facts. The poverty on the east end of London was horrendous from the Industrial Revolution all the way to the late 1950's. It really got me thinking about all this.