Any stories of being misunderstood by non-TCKs? Also, any non-traditional TCKs here?

i'm a non-traditional tck. i grew up in one country outside of the u.s. and both my parents were teachers at the international school i went to. they did quite well as teachers -- the salary at that school was well into the six figure category -- but we were nowhere near as well off as my friends were. my family did travel a lot because we were close to other countries, and the school's benefits package covered a lot of international travel and other things that made it easy for us to live a much more "glamorous" lifestyle than we would have otherwise been able to afford.

i now live in the u.s. and when i meet non-tck kids and tell them about my life, i do sound like i'm some kind of high-flying super rich jetsetter/like i'm bragging. but the reality is that, while my family was well off for your average american suburb, we definitely never even approached the wealth of most of my friends. i don't have too many problems relating to non-tcks, but i do have to make sure i keep my stories in check lest it seem like i'm bragging. my husband is not a tck and i've definitely made some offhand comments about certain things that have made him raise his eyebrows (like "oh, that louis vuitton purse...it just makes me think of middle school." or once he asked me how much i thought a middle class family made, and since i always saw my family as on the low end, income-wise, compared to everyone else in my community, i was like "i don't know...$500 - $750k?" and he was like, um, you need a reality check...)

i haven't experience people thinking i'm lying, but i think a lot of people think i'm bragging and/or i come from a much wealthier family than i do. most of my close friends are tcks, though, and when i went to college my program was full of tcks from around the world.

/r/TCK Thread