These anecdotal outliers are not the statistical mean. Of course, creative, thoughtful parents, who want their children to thrive, can find ways to provide meaningful childhood experiences. But that is not how it goes for most.

Society is built by averages. The median experience is more insightful than the particular experience you, or someone you know may have had in the margins of the bell curve. That doesn't mean their personal experience are devalued. But it DOES mean that we cannot hold them up as the standard, nor pretend that there aren't significant truths behind the realities of parents who struggle financially, emotionally, mentally, and otherwise. Moreover, the compounding factor in most destitute childhoods is that the parents never really wanted their children to love and rear, and develop into flourishing adults; instead, they simply followed the prescribed processes as they were instructed, or feared their own loss of status and position among their peers.

I hope you can expand your perspective to encompass more than just the winning stories; society is better measured by our treatment of the most vulnerable.