My family was poor growing up, we lived in apartments, and still do,
I wish I socialized more, and had more friends, but I was very shy and stayed home most of the time.
I had very few friends and didn't socialize outside of school.
 I wish I had a more "Ideal" childhood. A more typical childhood.

Andrew, there is no such thing as an "ideal" childhood.  What you saw on TV wasn't the norm.  Did you have a happy childhood?  If so, then you are luckier than alot of kids that grew up then.

I had a terrible upbringing, Andrew. Both my parents were on the dole (social in America?) and we lived in squalor. My mum had depression and an underactive thyroid and my dad was out of the picture a lot of the time - usually living apart from us as a result of one thing or another.

Me, my brother and sisters saw my mum and dad say nasty things about each other during and after a messy divorce, things we didn't need to know at a young age. We often struggled to put food on the table - going without food for 2 or 3 days until my mum's pay came through. I was chucked out of home twice and often wondered how I was going to survive from one day to the next . . .

I certainly don't wish I had a better childhood because I  appreciate things a lot more and therefore feel contented. I have tried to rebuild my bridges with my parents and, on a superficial level, it is working.

Andrew, contentment is the ideal you should be aiming for. The past is what shapes you and, like it or not, is what helps you become who you are.

Despite the adversaries that I had to grow up with, I lived my first ten years of life filled with excitement, curiosity, and wonder so I guess I was quite happy, and like most people have mentioned here, it's not based on living a picture-picture life. In conclusion, I guess I did have a pretty good childhood. After that, it went all downhill. (lol!)

I hear you, Andrew!
I wish I had a better childhood, even a little better in one or two aspects would have made a world of difference.
I grew up in an extremely dysfunctional family with parents I couldn't trust.  Both my parents were very intelligent, but crazy as all get out.  Drugs, infidelity, violence, inappropriate behavior of all sorts abounded.  
Peers were no comfort.  I was always an outcast and a heathen.  
I've dealt with severe and chronic depression/anxiety my entire life.  Things get better with age, thank god.  However, I still need high doses of antidepressant medication in order to function.  They didn't diagnose kids with depression in the '70s, but I know I had it even then.  On one hand, chronic unemployment and lonliness have made life harrowing, but on the other, I always consider what I've survived, and feel grateful to have made it through. :)
Oh, to the British poster referring to the dole.  In America there's "welfare," "social security," and "unemployment."  These programs have different functions and qualifications.  "Welfare" usually referred to the specific program "Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).  This program was gutted in 1996 and is now some other alphabet soup acronym.  Don't get me started on my country's slow descent into barbarism, I'll be here all night! >:(
Anyway, I have a lot of compassion for people who've had unhappy childhoods and adverse lives.  I've been there, believe me!

I had an ok upbringing.I was a very wild kid.My Mother stayed at home taking care of us while my Father at the time was working at Korvettes in the late 1970's.been living on the same block for 29 years and our favorite neighbors came and went.I love living here.kinda quiet neighborhood. :)


Howard

I had that ideal childhood until I was 8 (or so I thought). That was when my parents seperated. Before that, I was really too young to understand what was really going on in my house. After that, we moved, and moved, and moved. I went to 11 different schools before graduating. One school, I only attended for a month and another, I was enrolled in, but never attended. My mother suffered from a nervious breakdown and my father was basically fighting his own demons, too. There were times when my sisters took care of me. I remember being hungry. The worse was when there was nothing in the house but jello. There was also problems at one school I attended. I lived there for a few years and that was horrible. I was glad when I moved from that place.

Things got better when my mother remarried when I was 15. By this time, I was the only left at home (my sisters were on their own by then) and I kind of felt like an only child. By then, the problem I had was lack of communication with my parents. You hear all these stories about parents trying to communicate with their kids. In this case, I was trying to communicate with them but it didn't work. So, I just went my own way.

Today, I do talk to my mother (my step-father passed away many years ago.  :'() and my dad. Life is deffentally better. The scars are still there and I see it in every member of my family. I let go a lot of the anger but others have not. There still needs to be a lot more healing in my family but I saw a big difference in the ones that attended my wedding (one of my sisters didn't make it).


Cat