DU Demographics: What was your upbringing like?

[nolabear]

Last edited Tue Aug 14, 2012, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Not looking for TMI, just curious about how families influence the political interests of members. I know "with difficulties" is broad as hell, but whatever you feel is right.

39 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	Liberal, generally happy family, enough money
	7 (18%)
	Conservative, generally happy family, enough money
	4 (10%)
	Liberal family with difficulties, enough money
	3 (8%)
	Conservative family with difficulties, enough money
	5 (13%)
	Liberal, generally happy family, not enough money
	2 (5%)
	Conservative, generally happy family, not enough money
	3 (8%)
	Liberal family with difficulties, not enough money
	7 (18%)
	Conservative family with difficulties, not enough money
	4 (10%)
	Apolitical family, happy
	3 (8%)
	Apolitical family, difficulties
	1 (3%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[seabeyond]

1. liberal/conservative, poor young but didnt matter. more money in later years, didnt matter

happy childhood.

nothing really fit for your poll. we didnt have money, but could pay the bills, so it didnt matter and was not a stressful environment.

a mother that was a liberal. a father that was conservative. both accepting.

[HappyMe]

2. I had a great childhood.

Liberal parents, not rich by any means but we never went hungry.
I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Mixed marriage of my parents with constant rancor.

Dad was a Jack Armstrong, all American guy. Grew up in rural Pennsylvania during the Depression. Conservative since he was under 10. (E.g., he boycotted his older brother's wedding because his brother joined the local Communist Party and was marrying another Communist.). Saw life in terms of black-and-white. No compromise. Adored Nixon and said that he was Israel's best friend.

Mom was a liberal from Brooklyn. Went to both Barnard and Wellesley and didn't marry until age 24 (and that was in the Fifties!). Taught us that life was a variety of shades of gray. Loved Adlai Stevenson. Hated Nixon. Third generation atheist. Taught us the importance of voting by taking us into the voting booth with her when we were just three years of age.

You have no idea the frequency and kinds of arguments in our household. It was not peaceful. To this day, I just don't know how Mary Matalin and James Carville do it.

[HereSince1628]

4. Other: Union

& abusive.

[ananda]

5. Me: Conservative Dad, Liberal Mother.

Luckily, my Mom's liberal views prevailed.

Dad is still stuck in racist, conservative hell.

[malthaussen]

6. There is a glaring omission here.

Liberal/Conservative are your only choices. What about "apathetic?"

-- Mal

[nolabear]

15. Good point.

[cali]

7. I didn't really fit into your niches

I'm poor now, but I grew up in a wealthy family. And it was as dysfunctional as can be imagined. Both my parents were dems. Both were highly intelligent and charming. Neither of them had any business being parents. I've been estranged from my family for years with the exception of one sibling. It felt like money was both gag and leash. I literally still have nightmares, from time to time, about my childhood.

The best thing about my childhood was books. I lived in them. Literature raised me, gave me ideals. My parents had a remarkable private library. There was even a children's library. The next best thing was going to boarding school. We all got shipped off- my brother at age 9. I was so jealous.

What I most remember about my childhood is how scary it was. Just eating dinner with them was a frightening experience. Fortunately it didn't happen too often when we were kids. We ate in the kitchen a couple of hours before them except on weekends.

[snooper2]

8. Where's the option for rednecky and apolitical?

[hack89]

9. You need to add "apolitical" - like many I had parents that could not have cared less

they never voted as far as I know.

[Shrek]

10. +1

Parents were apolitical, somewhere between poor and lower-middle class.

Family life was generally happy, though there were a couple of rough years around the time my parents divorced in 1973.

[reflection]

11. Yes, that is the exact term I was scanning the poll for.

I was raised by a single mother. Although she was apolitical, she voted in every election. She just believed in the duty of voting, and raised us to believe that as well. I figured out quickly based on our conversations she was entering the voting booth woefully uninformed, voting mostly on vague abstract ideas. She probably voted for as many Rs as Ds. But I still think we could have been characterized as apolitical.

I probably didn't explain that well.

[kctim]

12. None of the above

Democratic family
Poor
VERY happy

[Tommy_Carcetti]

13. For me:

Parents were economically liberal, socially moderate to slightly conservative. I was raised Catholic (and still am, despite some of the significant flaws of the church administratively), went to church every Sunday and my parents were heavily involved in the parish. My dad was a huge fan of Jimmy Carter and a big opponent of Reagan and the Bushes. My mom was actually registered Republican until 2004, but hadn't voted Republican in a presidential election since Nixon.

Both my parents were (and still are) very intellectual and strove to pass that on to their children. They loved talking politics, religion, philosophy with one another and with their friends. My dad was a genius, and I mean that literally. He is the smartest person I've ever personally known.

My dad had a solid public sector job in the education/research field. As someone in the private sector now, I wish I had the job security he was able to provide us. My mom taught before me and my sisters were born, but stayed at home after becoming a mother. We were--as I currently am--middle of the middle class. Our house was average--my parents bought it as a bungalow and continued adding on when each of us kids were born.

Despite being relatively secure fiancially, we were not huge on material possessions. My parents would buy their cars new with cash, and would keep them pretty much throughout their lifetime. (My dad drove our minivan for 250,000 miles until it gave up the ghost!). But we would take annual vacations to Florida (by car). Probably the one "luxury" item our family bought was a vacation condo in Florida, and that itself was rather modest as vacation condos go.

If there was anything my family taught me was intangible experiences over material possessions. We enjoyed our family vacations. We enjoyed our weekly trips to visit my grandparents. We were all generally supportive of one another. My parents were firm believers of not overspending or getting too deep in debt. There was no need for us to "keep up with the Joneses" in terms of biggest houses and fanciest cars.

All in all, in retrospect I have to say it was a good upbringing, relatively comfortable and without major dysfunction, and one I'd like to emulate with my own children.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

14. Conservative Christian family, only child, very poor...

I remember my parents searching for change in the couch to buy bread at one point.

Never been close to middle class.

My parents were kind of apolitical, though. I rarely remember them talking about politics when I was younger. Dad always voted Republican. Mom never votes. This year, they are both Obama supporters.

[YoungDemCA]

16. Moderately liberal family

nt

[nolabear]

17. Edited to reflect apolitical families.

Didn't have room for the money issue so just went with happy/difficulties.

[TheKentuckian]

18. Happy in ways, very difficult in others.

Below poverty but blessed with caring better off relatives.

Solid education, no memory of not knowing how to read, advanced classes, a stint in private, college classes during high school. Never enough for "extras" like musical instruments, sports equipment, or lessons on much of anything.

Generally liberal politically (no one even as far right as center can be moved to tears by Dukakis lol) even socially for the most part but with some rather prominent fundyish trappings like worrying about KISS, backward masking, preacher shows on TV sometimes, uptight about nudity and sex, gays presented as ill, not bad exactly but untrustworthy around children and in need of therapy type vibe.
Economic left but uncomfortable with the word socialism, if not actual practice. I guess it was conflated with communism.

Got bullied a lot, fights were regular. I was never particularly small or weak though and from third grade on was a stone cold lock to be one of the "front row" kids so I could generally hold my own.

Didn't know my father, never spoke a word to him until I was 28 and who I thought was my father was a drunk, wanna be pimp so I can't imagine how worthless the other fucker was.

Really good friends, many I keep to this day.

Exposed to culture in ways many of the same means weren't like opera, the theater, music of almost all types (minus the aforementioned KISS and whoever was on the backward masking fundy hit list). I could read ANYTHING I wanted. It was okay to go to the public library after school.

I always understood money had to be earned and what it is like for it to be hard to come by. I had to help pay bills.

I was always encouraged to know what is going on in the world and how things worked. We watched CSPAN and discussed the policies being debated.

Far, far from perfect but I did okay.

[Johonny]

19. my parents and grandparents political landscape not captured by modern politics

[beveeheart]

20. It saddens me that

while my upbringing was "Liberal, generally happy family, enough money", my grandchildren would have to choose "Liberal family with difficulties, not enough money" due to divorce, absent father, underemployed mother.

[nolabear]

21. Hope others are enjoying this. I am. And here's me.

Poor, conservative family with considerable difficulties. I suspect things would actually be better today due to advances in health care and the military benefits to cover at least a reasonable part of it. But I was, and remain, an anomaly in my Southern ultraconservative family of origin in that I turned out liberal, reasonably comfortable and have made a life's work of trying to function well and help others to do the same. In part, I got lucky. In part, I gots mad skills.

[Populist_Prole]

22. Apolitical, with difficulties and lower middle class

By today's standards conservative, but we never really talked politics. There were some good times here and there but home life mostly sucked. At that time I was one of very few people in my school who: 1) Wasn't born and raised in our town 2) Had divorced/remarried parents. I was too young to remember much of what family life was like before my parents divorced. Saw my father once a week. Her second husband was a drunk but never abusive, at least physically and had bigoted racial and other attitudes. Definitely of the "I had it rough, so should you" thinking but ironically he also had some good points and was a positive influence in certain ways.

I had lots of aunts/uncles and cousins and I have many good memories spending time with them. I get ( got? ) along pretty good with my "real" father but over the past dozen years he's developed into a raging tea party hard right conservative.

Could have been better, could have been worse.

[Jennicut]

23. My parents are both conservatives.

My parents did influence me to be involved in politics but I became a liberal. Oops. They have learned to deal with it and are really very nice people. Very involved as parents and always listened to my ideas though we disagree on politics. We grew up solidly upper middle class in Cheshire, a wealthy town in CT. A lot of conservatives were in that town but it is also Connecticut and there is a lot of social liberalism there. A blue state with some very rich areas and some very poor areas is what CT is.

[Robyn66]

24. conservative-fucked up abusive family-not enough money-but lived like we did

Dad, an alcoholic cop who shot at us with blanks for fun, Mom, perfectionist- you have to earn love and you never quite get there. Stop crying you got a stereo for christmas. Good memories. RABID REPUBLICANS. Raised us to HATE the Kennedy's Hated EVERYONE but white anglo-saxon protestants. Yet somehow I survived!!! LOL!!

[slackmaster]

25. Politically mixed - Old-style Republican + New Deal Democrat, parents NEVER argued about politics

They never took it seriously enough to fight over.

[Jane Austin]

26. Where's "Moderate"? nt

[proud patriot]

27. I guess I'm a rare one

Raised first 4 yrs by poor happy hippie parents - parents split
Rich republican grandparents raised me from 4 to 13 they were mostly happy sort of
at 13 my dad took back custody we struggled in a mobile home but were generally happy

I've had the blessing of all worlds as an adult it's been all struggle and little joy .

[handmade34]

28. Apolitical family, difficulties...dysfunctional

abusive, fundamental Christian mother... did I say dysfunctional?

[loli phabay]

29. zero politics apart from family politics. lived like royalty and very happy.

[SoCalDem]

30. Raised overseas on military base

Flighty (uneducated mother)
Mean, abusive father
never enough money

I adored my teachers and school was my refuge

[Shankapotomus]

31. Imagine Ray Barone's

or George Costanza's parents as conservatives. Those are my parents. Yep, those are my parents.

[Raine]

32. Moderate Repub family, happy, enough money but not as much as the people around us had. Lived in an

upper-middle class area and went to private school. The other kids parents were professionals and had more money, bigger cars and houses than we had. My father worked longer hours to pay for private school etc. I had a happy childhood but always felt lesser than my peers. I think in the end that made me more compassionate towards others because I never felt I fit in with the "crowd".

[procon]

33. I need a "Dysfunctional" selection - nt

[smirkymonkey]

34. Conservative, generally happy family, well off, but my parents weren't rabidly conservative.

However my stepmother was extremely abusive, but when she wasn't (which was rare) we were happy. We had a lot of advantages and good time since we lived in a close community and my dad was a very kind, good person who worked hard to give us everything we needed (and even wanted). It wasn't always easy, but I have a lot of fond memories of growing up in addition to the abusive episodes that my stepmother wrought upon us when my dad wasn't around.

[Motown_Johnny]

35. Back in my day we had something called "Moderates".

[MrSlayer]

36. Mixed, somewhat apolotical, happy, enough money.

I had a great childhood.

[Broken_Hero]

37. Didn't vote

because I'm not sure what option to pick.

I was raised in a strict Mormon household, by parents who are very pro-life, pro-union, pro 2nd amendment, and supported gay marriage. My father was a Vietnam Vet who hates the IRS with a passion, and doesn't trust the Govt(especially the Military) as far as he could throw the sun. My mother was the more devout religious instigator, who didn't really try to shake the boat, politically speaking.

I think of our family as Democratic, with the exception of the Pro-Life angle(Im not, btw), and we were financially secure during a majority of my upbringing, but with some trauma thrown in(death of brother/sister, house burning down).

Since I've been out of the house for a handful of decades the religious aspect of the family has dwindled substantially, I think my mom just got tired of fighting the fight...none of my brothers/sister are Mormon any longer(there are 12 of us). I believe we, as siblings took our fathers lead, politically.

[Odin2005]

38. Liberal, generally happy family, not enough money.

I grew up in a poor rural NW Minnesota community of 500 people. I never realized we were poor until I was in high school.

[Risen Demon]

39. Hard to say

I'm a gen-x'er, or "Reagan baby" as some call us.

We weren't really a political family. My brother and I were basically taught to enjoy life for whatever it offered. I remember when my dad got laid off from his job which paid all of our bills, got us two cars, two TVs, full cable, a Nintendo with a plethora of games, a riding lawnmower bought from our neighbor, and a mother who could stay at home if she chose. It hurt the family pretty bad.

Things got worse for myself and all of us once I hit middle school. Mom and Dad were both working alot. A lot of my influence began to come from peers and gave me a jaded outlook on life for awhile. It seemed like the bigger jerkoff you were, the more respected you were. So I became the enemy, yet, for some reason it didn't work for me. What can I say: I was young and stupid.

The older I became, the more open-minded i became as well. I can honestly say that the best thing to ever happen to me was getting out of high school and away from all of my peers. From that point I think I started becoming a better person, slowly but surely. I'm 31 now with 2 children. TBH, my first born was what really started to turn my life around. It's hard to explain. I went from being a narrow-minded, aggressive, cocky teen to a kind-hearted, empathetic and reasonable man. Still cynical at times, but even then I try to see all points of view. I guess it comes from experiencing life on my own without the influence of others.

[CabCurious]

40. All those choices and each assumes the family is one-sided?

[Nikia]

41. My family was mixed politically and economically

My Republican grandparents were probably Progressive by today's standards though. I had grandparents who were active in politics for both both parties. They never made any secret about their political views and gave these views with true conviction.
My friend who grew up in a more economically mixed family said that my whole family would probably be considered middle class. When they were poor they were middle class down on their luck. When they had more money, middle class with more money. He said that it is an important distinction because members of my family behaved like middle class people despite their money or lack thereof rather than like rich or poor people.
I spent a lot of time around both sets of grandparents who I considered to be great people. My parents are great people in many ways too but they divorced when I was young and bad mouthed each other and fought for most of my childhood. My mother's second husband who she was married to through my entire teen years was an awful human being. For various reasons, it seemed like my parents did not have enough time for my sister and I and I was never good enough for them. I guess that puts my family into the difficulty category.
My sister and I are Liberals. I think that it is because we have seen different economic circumstances, different well intentioned opinions, and felt like outsiders for various reasons. I think that allows us to better empathize with people in all different circumstances. I think that this is lacking in modern Conservative Republicans and incapatible with many of their current platforms.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

42. None of the above. Conservative father, Progressive mother.

Not enough money to pay the bills. Then my parents divorced and one side paid the bills (mom) and the other side was still poor.

I grew up between the two families. I don't have a niche that fits into your poll.

My families were also polar opposites on religion. A fundy father, a reformed catholic turned atheist mother.

Childhood was a real adventure.

[riderinthestorm]

43. None of the above. Liberal dad took off when I was 10 and left us with ultra conservative mom

So I was basically raised in a mixed household for the first 10 apolitical years, and then spent the next 8 years being raised by a rage filled, ultra conservative, Reaganite parent who hated her life, my life, the loss of her privileged pampered life....

Very warped. Once I renewed a relationship with my dad I completely understood why he had to leave.

[rbrnmw]

44. I'm a true blue dyed in the wool Democrat

I grew up in a happy middle class home the first campaign I remember was 76 my parents practically moved into the local Democratic HQ my first crush was on Ted Strickland he was running for Congress and was there all the time.

[Blue_In_AK]

45. Dad was liberal,

Mom a little more conservative, but our home was happy, and we were financially secure. Dad worked at NASA, mom was a nurse.

[Marr]

46. You know, it's weird. Considering what I know now, I'd have to say I grew up

in a very poor household (well below the poverty line), in a troubled family (father was an alcoholic, mother was physically and emotionally abusive).

But I remember my childhood very fondly and think I was a happy kid, overall.

Mostly apolitical environment.

[bigwillq]

47. Poll option A (nt)

[Uncle Joe]

48. Apolitical family both happy and with difficulties.

Thanks for the thread, nolabear.

[Zorra]

49. I'll let you know, if I can ever figure it out. nt