What made you jealous of other children as a child?

[reecejackox]

For me how popular they were and I wasn't.

 

[chickapin parterre]

stingray bikes, GI joe gear to the max and fishsticks. Color TV not so much.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

In high school I was jealous of girls that had nice hair.

 

[ronandannette]

Their siblings. I was a “lonely only”.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Their siblings. I was a “lonely only”.

Same here!

 

[tasha99]

The toy I wanted but never got: Operation.

The food I wanted but rarely got: Kraft Mac and Cheese. We had homemade, or rarely, off brand.

The thing I wanted to do that others were allowed to do: watch more tv. I was allowed an hour a week of PBS type shows. I did get to watch Sesame St. every day as a little kid, but then I got cut off (at my dad's--my mom let me have a tv in my room. The thing I wanted there was to be able to stay up late enough to finish the movies that started at 9. She made me go to bed at 10 though, and checked.)

 

[Laura72]

Food. I was that starving child without stable meals everyday.

as a teen with a job it was clothing, cars

 

[ronandannette]

Same here!

I actually had them but vastly older and not meaningful companions by any stretch. I longed for it as a kid and really regret that my own DS is in exactly the same boat.

 

[Skippy918]

Siblings, popularity, prettiness too.

 

[georgina]

I had 5 older sisters, so wore a lot of hand me downs and my mom sewed a lot of my clothes. We lived in a small town until I was 12 and this was not so much of an issue, but moving in the middle of 7th grade to a large city caused me a lot of stress. I was quite shy and jealous of the girls who could easily talk to boys and flirt!

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I actually had them but vastly older and not meaningful companions by any stretch. I longed for it as a kid and really regret that my own DS is in exactly the same boat.

Again, same here! But my much older sibling was off escaping the dysfunction. Lol. Being an only child definitely influenced my own family planning. I was happy to have any number of children other than one!

 

[penn19]

A normal family.

 

[Meriweather]

Their siblings. I was a “lonely only”.

This for me too

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I wished for nicer clothes like my friends had. All my stuff came from Kmart. I wanted to wear clothes that were actually fashionable and current like this girl Barrie in my class, who I idolized even though she wouldn't have spit on me if I were on fire. I can look back and shake my head now at how dumb I was, but at the time it was painful and embarrassing.

 

[slo]

I wished for in-style clothes.
If my mom didn’t like something then she wouldn’t buy it, and she is very conservative and didn’t like anything I liked. She would say all the time that if kids at school would make fun of my clothes or shoes then they weren’t my friends. Needless to say - I was made fun of a lot and didn’t have many friends.
(This is not meant to be a complaint - I love my mom)

 

[MrsPete]

I am tempted to say "fewer siblings", but I wouldn't really wish any of them away -- but growing up in a big family wasn't easy. So often we didn't have enough to go around.
Yes to nicer clothes -- we had to wear things until they were literally rags.
I wanted a part-time job in high school, but -- as the oldest -- I was required to be at home every afternoon babysitting the younger kids for no pay.
I was very jealous of families who had a second phone /a "children's phone".
And air conditioning.

This makes me wonder, what would people have been jealous of about me? I suspect my grades and that teachers always liked me. I had (well, have) great hair and a good figure.

She would say all the time that if kids at school would make fun of my clothes or shoes then they weren’t my friends.

Yeah, my mom used that line too. Apparently a lot of people weren't really my friends.

 

[DVCjj]

A sweet lovely girl in grade school with perfect blond hair and blue eyes and spoke in a whisper. I didn’t.

I was jealous.

 

[linzjane88]

Material things : easy bake oven

Other things : a mom who wanted to be a mom, siblings.

 

[KMarston]

stingray bikes, GI joe gear to the max and fishsticks. Color TV not so much.

My son was the youngest by 9 years. I remember him coming home from a friends in middle school and he was indignant! “How come we’ve never had fish sticks!!” His sister is like... seriously??? I was raised on fish sticks and hot dogs, you eat ahi tuna and fillet!

 

[KMarston]

I don’t think I was jealous of friends. I was the oldest and many of my friends were onlys or youngest so I did a lot of traveling with them, so maybe traveling without having to worry about younger siblings.