Has anyone else experienced feeling guilty since they grew up in a wealthy family?

My parents are extremely rich. I grew up rich. I am born into money. Growing up my father spoiled me, i always had what i wanted for free. i always compared myself to my friends who were in a less economical class . I had better things than them. If i broke something, it was just a funny joke how clumsy i am and it got replaced immediately. When i was 14 year old my best friend came to our house for the first time she kept saying "wow".

She was really impressed that we had 2 TV's, it embarrassed me enough that I didn't tell her we had 4.Eating out every single day. At least one, if not both meals were delivered to the house every day, sometimes from really fancy restaurants. I always thought that home cooked food and family dinners on tv were fake. I only realized It was abnormal when my friend came over and when we were talking said she liked the pasta at this local Italian restaurant, so I went on the phone and ordered (we were about 16 at the time) and she was in complete shock that I was allowed to do that. Being able to go to college/school without thinking about cost. I never had to worry about money growing up. I went to an elite private school and had private tutors, went on lavish holidays and lived in a nice big house.

I've been able to set up a comfortable life for myself at my parents expense and I’m grateful for that.

Vacations big time. Being unable to understand why people wanted to raise taxes. Country clubs and $50,000+ weddings. Being able to afford maids, accountants, and being in contact with a lawyer constantly.

People sometimes make me feel guilty for being rich. Should I feel guilty or lucky for being born well-off? "guilty" is a bad word for this but I can't think of another one to describe the feeling.

I know this is so trivial compared to what other people go through/ free but i just want to get it off my chest.

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HootyTheNightOwl

The guilt and shame that you carry aren't really yours to bear.

While you were raised in a privileged way in some ways, your parents obviously dropped the ball when it came to letting you see and experience things associated with the less privileged in other ways.

It might have helped you to better understand more about the world at a younger age if you had gotten to go out with your parents and seen the low class neighbourhoods and the homeless - and to experience what it was like to go without something that you broke because you were careless with it.

At least in these ways, you might have been able to understand at a younger age that you had a very different life to others because of your parents money and that some of the taxes they paid went towards providing the less fortunate with some of the things they need that you took for granted.

I'm not going to bash you because you were just a child and you weren't exposed to things to help you to see that there was a whole different way of life just a few streets away from where you lived that you didn't even know about because you weren't exposed to it.

You had to rely on others to show you that and allow you to witness it in a controlled way - which obviously didn't happen until you were older and able to see it for yourself.

In a way, you are fortunate that you were able to see what you did and realise that you had a better upbringing than children who didn't have much because we have governments now who still have no idea of how the world works for those who are of a lower class to them and they think that "taking away the allowance" of a disabled person will be enough to force them to take up a job - rather than accepting that they might never be able to work due to their disability, employer biases or the fact that they are a liability when it comes to health and safety laws.