My father recently bought a good pair of shoes for himself. This sounds completely ordinary, but he has been wearing cheap shoes for years despite being able to afford better ones.
When he came home, he kept explaining the purchase. There was a discount, the old pair was damaged, these would last longer. Nobody had questioned him, yet he still felt the need to justify spending on himself. I realised how deeply years of financial responsibility had trained him to see personal comfort as unnecessary.
Do parents who spent decades sacrificing for family ever really learn to enjoy money without guilt?