A big FUCK YOU for your rather large assumptions. You've got a rather quick trigger finger there me bucko! You erronously think I was (and probably still is) some sort of spoiled brat. That is so very far from the case. I was not a demanding child nor did I feel that they didn't spend enough on me. I was a good quiet kid that 99% of the time did as I was told. You see some kids out now who throw tantrums and whine when they want stuff and don't get it. (I want to smack them sometimes!) I never did that even if I wanted something.
As for complaining about paying for stuff myself, I've observed from my friends and other people I know, who are also middle class families, that they have received help from their parents, whether paying back them back or not, with regards to their education, weddings, cars and homes. I don't think it's unreasonable to have a desire to also have some help with one or some of those to make things a little easier. Reality has dictated otherwise and I'm not bitching, whining and complaining about it. I've done very well for myself and am dealing with the costs myself. Even if monies were offered in the past few years, I don't think I could accept them knowing what state my parents are in financially. I know my mom is proud of what I've accomplished and often runs by me her financial stuff.
I in fact did receive help in paying for my post high school education. It was paid for up front by my mom and I paid her back over a year and a half once I got a job.
For the food, it wasn't that I couldn't eat what I wanted, it was the reverse, I had to eat stuff I didn't want. I'm quite sensitive to bitter foods and certain textures especially when I was a kid. My mom didn't quite grasp that or just didn't believe me. I don't know. But it frequently made for dinnertime to be very uncomfortable.
So fuck you and your preconceived quick draw thinking.
(Subtlety in my family starts and ends with me. The others are about as subtle as an elephant in a china shop.)