Redditors who grew up filthy rich, what did you think was normal till your learned otherwise?

My family is Chinese, and this story isn't about me, but about my family.

My Great Grandparents were pretty rich landowners. I asked my Mom about it, and she said that they were probably about multimillionaires. Note that this may be inaccurate because of inflation, the fact that China wasn't exactly a commercial based economy, etc.

My Great Grandparents were imprisoned and stripped of all their wealth during the Cultural Revolution. My grandmother went from being extremely rich to literally having nothing at all.

She must have worked pretty hard though, because she made enough to raise a family. My mother says she grew up pretty poor, and that they barely had enough food to eat. However, she too worked pretty hard, and was able to graduate and make it into TsingHua, which is a kind of equivalent to an Ivy League in the US.

My dad was pretty much in the same situation as my mother, and too went to a decent university. They immigrated to America with literally nothing, and scrapped by. I remember I had to be sent back to China to live with my relatives when I was 1-4 years old because our financial situation was dire and they didn't want me to experience it. They both went to UTD whilst working odd jobs trying to make ends meet.

When I was about 6 years old, they finally got a green card, and they were able to pay off their debt and we were able to live more frivolously. Now we are doing fine, with both parents make about 100k a year and my Dad also has a real estate side job that makes I think a bit short of 100k.

I think I'm disappointing my parents a bit though, because I want to be a Classical musician when I grow up.

/r/AskReddit Thread