Did I grow up poor or not?

Complicated question. I'm from America but I assume Australia is fairly similar. This is a categorization that could be done on many levels. Worldwide some people live of 2 dollars a day. So almost any western country would have overwhelming non-poor people. But if you look more domestically, poor takes a different connotation. Living standards in America at least dictate that most families have the necessities but can get some luxury items every now and again in the least. Then there are families who do enough to get by and that's about it. They might consider themselves poor. Then there are legitimate families in poverty, ends not meeting. But generally speaking, a pay scale dictates poverty line in America. like 20,000 is poverty line, which 13 percent of the country was below and the national average of income is around 50,000. I guess if I was the judge, I would say you weren't poor but would use a phrase like "they don't have a lot". Meaning your not in straight poverty but you also don't have as much as the statistical average family

U may not of had what u WANTED but u had what u NEEDED..Thats more than alot of people can say. U wasnt THAT poor!

Poor is not having what you need
when you went in your mothers car to get groceries, did you see homeless people begging for food? THEY are poor

thats not being poor, like your mom said kids have it worse elsewhere

If you thought yourself poor as a teenager, did you get a job so you wouldn't be so poor? If you didn't, then I would say you weren't poor.

poor you.