Some of those hit uncomfortably close to home, when I was a teenager living with a single mom and no child support from my foreign father (Bulgarian justice system of the late 1980s and early 1990s could not be assed to do anything about him and even simple replies to letters from Czechoslovak courts took years to arrive).

Especially the bad shoes. Oh my, the bad shoes, leaking and tearing themselves apart all the time. Walking around in portable puddles whenever it rained or the snow started melting. I hated that so much, but good shoes were too expensive.