I don't know if this was unusual for a child to think about but when kids in media had bigger cooler homes and exciting lives and more friends and obviously more money than me it only made me sad. And I felt really aware of how the narratives were showing this off in a way that I was supposed to love? Like it was supposed to endear me to this cartoon child that they get a huge whimsical bedroom or they travel the world but instead I was six years old already feeling an emotion I only now understand was a sense of "wow fuck this asshole." Worse when the plot revolved around how unhappy they are about it.
I still see that most animated or otherwise fictional children have bigger houses than I've almost ever been in. If you really wanna relate to kids, especially NOW, you ought to have them crammed in a one bedroom efficiency apartment with a tarp over the rotten part of the floor, or a trailer with so many mice the whole family has to store everything in plastic containers and still rinse the little turds off the lid every so often. Where's all the black mold and perpetual flea infestations in kids fiction? You know the stuff real kids deal with
"relatable" kids shows were always like "uuugh don't you hate when the school laughs at your one zit!?" and never "your refrigerator broke down and it's going to be months without fresh food until your family can afford a replacement"
Yeeeeeeep. This was a factor in how I didn't finish watching Madoka Magica. Like, I get it, super popular anime, well made, etc., but LOOK AT THIS. WHAT IS THIS BATHROOM. It has TVs and so much empty space!? The characters are clearly rich beyond belief and that kinda took me out of the events that transpired, watching these kids think about wishes and becoming magical girls when there's housing like this.