To ask if you believe you’ve lived a luckier life than most?

[MyAmusedOpalCrab]

Whether it’s down to circumstances, timing, support, or sheer chance - do you ever stop and think, “I’ve had it easier than others?” Or do you believe we mostly make our own luck?

Despite two absolute fuckers of health issues to worry about (child and husband), I have been incredibly fortunate in life.

It’s all relative as we have loads of money and resources but some days I’d swap the whole lot for health.

So yes and no.

Maybe you would have had kind and supportive replies, if you hadn't immediately taken issue with people calling themselves lucky for not living in poverty.

I can read. We're both quite lucky to be able to read, aren't we?

Yes I think I’ve been lucky. I had a bad start with an awful home life, failed school and fell in to drink and drugs. I could have dodged the latter two, but i was damaged.
Since then my life has done a 180. I’m mother to five beautiful children, run a successful business and have an amazing high earning gorgeous partner.
i don’t think it was luck as much as having the gift of the gab and being attractive. Sorry, not sorry.

I had a really tough childhood, it didn’t set me up well in life at all, but I’ve achieved a lot by societies standards, it’s not been luck I’ve worked incredibly hard.

The harder you work, the more risks you take and the more you go for opportunities the ‘luckier’ you are.

No, I don't think that I have been lucky. I had a difficult life in lots of ways.

I’ve worked really hard and made sacrifices for what I’ve got. But I was lucky enough to have parents, who although weren’t perfect, did their absolute best for us and when I read some awfully sad stories on here, I’m very thankful for that. Some people, though no fault of their own, don’t get dealt a good hand.

I also had a very tough childhood. I actually work with children now, who go into long term residential care.

The stories are heartbreaking. So many children go through such terrible times.

Absolutely. Being born in the West in an English-speaking country with compulsory free education (including for girls). Growing up with clean water, in a country with fertile soil/trading partners, and no local warfare. Allowed to get a post-graduate education and choose my own spouse, and choose how many/when to have children. Excellent pre-natal care & childbirth, and a low infant mortality rate.

There are millions of women in the world who would swap in a heartbeat.

How is education free here?

University education isn't free here.

University education is completely free in some other countries.

My quote said that compulsory education was free. Uni is not compulsory education.

Absolutely the fuck not. I’m a very optimistic person but not even I can pretend I’ve been lucky in my life. My dad was screamed, shouted and beat us up, my stepdad did the same but was also a sexual predator and an alcoholic, my mum didn’t protect us, my first adult, lived-with boyfriend was a controlling abusive prick who used to hit me and on top of all that I’m chronically ill with an incredibly painful condition.
With all that being said, that’s certainly not to say I don’t feel so happy in my life now and incredibly grateful for what I do have, perhaps more so given how rough it’s been in the past. I’m married to the very best type of man, kind, safe and just all round good, and I’ve two beautiful children, a happy home and a successful business.

Yes. I have a reasonable array of "adverse childhood experiences", but am lucky enough to have some strong protective factors. I'm not completely unaffected, but I am happy and successful personally and professionally. I work with children who have had similar experiences without the protective factors, and I am grateful all the time for my good fortune.

Compulsory education is not very fair in the U.K. though is it. The richer families can pay for good private schools. The poorer children get a worse education.

Oh I send you a hug.

Yes. I am very lucky, and thankful for it.

I have along marriage and a great husband. My children are healthy, very smart and successful. I have a lovely house in a nice area, an ok job, DH a high earner, several foreign holidays a year, our health is generally good, few longtime friends. We are very comfortable financially, and retiring next year at 55. I would make all the same life choices again. Exactly.
But I lost my dad at 54 when I was 26;and then my mum at 69 in a car accident when I was 44. I am VLC with my brother, so have no family on my side I ever see anymore. That’s my greatest sadness.
Swings and roundabouts.

I am unlucky. I have it written as a medical diagnosis on my notes. 14 miscarriages 1 stillbirth.
I have three lovely now adult DC. Nice home, early retirement.

I don't really like the idea of being lucky. It then suggests that other people are unlucky
It reminds me of a time that I visited India.

There is such a wealth divide there. You see millionaires on one street, and you see homeless people on another street.

I got speaking to a very wealthy man at a group that I attended. As there were two homeless men outside, I said to him, "doesn't it upset you, all this terrible poverty around us?".

He replied, "No. That is their karma", and he shrugged it off.

Of course. If you have grown up in the uk and not been subjected go abuse, violence or serious ill health then you have been luckier than most of the rest of the world.

What if you have suffered abuse and violence.

.odt people born into the UK won life's lottery. Unless you were abused or ill.

Ouch. Not much room for empathy if the poverty is perceived as deserved from actions in a past life.

I know I am lucky. I have a very high standard of living in Australia. Even though I was born into shitty circumstances that I have left behind me and am much better off as an adult, just being born here was hugely lucky.