Sarah Jessica Parker's Son Wore Hand-Me-Downs Like Regular Kids — Poor Childhood Taught Her Thriftiness

Sarah Jessica Parker was born into a poverty-stricken family that sometimes could not afford to pay for electricity. Today, she is worth millions, but she has never forgotten her roots and leads a modest lifestyle. She hopes to instill values like hard work and respect in her children.

Sarah Jessica Parker is an American actress famous for her role in the hit TV series "Sex and The City" which ran from 1998 until 2004. As a child, she took ballet and acting classes. Then, at 11, she moved to New York with her family so she and her siblings could pursue careers in the entertainment world.

Her rise started in theatre in 1978 when she portrayed the lead role in "Annie." She worked there for three years and then got involved with other stage work. In 1979, she made her debut on the big screen in "Rich Kids" and then in 1982, she was featured in "Square Pegs."

The show only aired for a season, but at that time, it garnered the love and attention of the masses. For Parker, it opened many doors, which meant more film offers, including "Footloose" and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

Parker played many other roles in the years that followed her explosion to film, but she did not truly achieve superstar status until she appeared in "Sex and the City" as one of the four lead women, Carrie Bradshaw. Her performance won several honors and awards, including Emmys and Golden Globe Awards.

Her Poverty-Stricken Family

Parker was born into a very impoverished family. Her father was Stephen, an aspiring writer, and her mother was a nursery school teacher named Barbara. They lived in Nelsonville, a mining town in Ohio, and were very poor, meaning her childhood was vastly different from that of other kids.

The circumstances she had to survive as a child instilled many lessons she has come to appreciate as an adult. Parker's parents had four kids, including her, before they went their separate ways.

She was just three when her parents divorced, and afterward, her mother moved on with a lorry driver named Paul Forste. She married him, and they welcomed four more kids together.

Her industrious mother worked out a way to get her trained by cleaning the studios in exchange for the knowledge her daughter was receiving.

Living day to day was not easy for such a large family. Forste usually had to stay out often to work, but times were still hard for their family. The family often had to go without light because they couldn't afford the electricity bills, and they did not celebrate birthdays or holidays like Christmas.

Going to school was tough for Parker because she only wore hand-me-downs and pieces they got from thrift stores. In the end, the family had to rely on help from the government to make things work.

The help was welcomed, but Parker suffered embarrassment for it in her school, with her teacher going as far as reading out the names of kids who got free lunches before the whole class. She said:

"It was a stigma thing. I was not the only person receiving a free lunch, but you are aware you are different."

Despite the state they lived in, Parker's family still enjoyed great experiences, especially at the theatre and ballet in the Cincinnati area. It was free to go to those places, and her mom would often take her and the other kids there to keep them entertained.

Those free shows planted the love of acting in Parker's heart, and her industrious mother worked out a way for her to get trained by cleaning the studios in exchange for the knowledge her daughter was receiving.

At age 11, her family moved with her to New Jersey to aid her aspirations as an actress. After she got her first role, Parker became her family's primary provider, and things started turning around for them. Things got better as she secured even more roles in TV series and movies.

Now Parker lives the life she could never have dreamed of. According to her, she is very content and never imagined she could live such a life.

The Lessons Poverty Taught Her Are What She Hopes to Teach Her Kids

Parker is now an established actress with many awards and honors under her belt; however, she is also a family woman who keeps most of her private life under wraps.

She is married to actor Matthew Broderick, and they share three kids; twins Marion, Tabitha, and their older brother, James. Growing up as she did gave Parker the ability to respect money. Parker has also admitted that her early years as a dancer taught her how to work hard. She said:

"I believe in hard work; I just believe in it. I don't know how not to work hard."

Today Parker is wealthy enough to give her children everything they need; however, she wants to teach them the importance of dreaming and working for things they want, so she refuses to spoil them.

She added: "We all want the same things, right? Children that are safe and well and taken care of." Parker also once revealed that she always tells her children:

"I will do my best to make sure you always have what you need but I want you pining for something. I want you to work for something, you dream of it, hope for it and will it happen."

Her oldest, James, has a pretty good grasp of this value since she has drilled it into him since he was younger, but now she has to do the same for her much younger daughters and is being delicate with her teachings so they can understand the lessons.

These days, Parker's priority is her family, raising her kids, and instilling the spirit of hard work in them. Thanks to her fame and successful career, she now has the privilege of choosing the work she wishes to do, which means she gets to spend as much time as she wants with her family.

Another way she has been teaching her kids to respect money is by getting them second-hand clothing. Despite her career as an actress, Parker practices hands-on parenting and does not accept a live-in helper to care for them. On days when she and her husband have to work, they have nannies to pick the kids up from school.

Parker, now worth about $200 million, is a great mother any kid would be glad to have as a parent, and fans can't wait to see what her kids, armed with lessons they learn from her, will do in the future.