Powerlessness was your interpretation of the situation. Maybe you can go back and revise that interpretation b/c these thoughts do have a long-term effect on yo

Powerlessness was your interpretation of the situation. Maybe you can go back and revise that interpretation b/c these thoughts do have a long-term effect on your psyche. My family was well-off [but we didn't really know it until my Dad died]. We lived a comfortable existence. During childhood, Mom's purse was my bank (with her approval). Growing older and needing more than the occasional coin, I tried to arrange a regular allowance with Dad. Having been raised on a poor sharecropper's farm, he wouldn't give me an "allowance" without some serious tit-for-tat, usually involving days of labor (e.g., digging a ditch from the back yard to the front, painting the house, etc.). Working for him was best described by the phrase "wage slave". So ASAP I got a supermarket job across town, rode my bike to work and became largely free of family financial ties. I still remember the exhilaration of my first paycheck. Bonus: Dad approved. It wasn't "our society or 'teenagers in the 80s'", it's you. We're all different, including our interpretations of events and other peoples' actions. Changing your interpretations, even now, can be very uplifting.