Difficult childhoods in what respect?
There will always be someone who hurts worse, who is hungrier and more deprived. That doesn't make this child's experience any less hard for him at this time. It hurts to be different when the social task of adolescence is to be the same.
I don't think you can win the debate b/c it is faulty: who has not suffered? Of course proportion of suffering differs greatly. I can think of people who have overcome serious adversity (Helen Keller, Mya Angelo) and those who grew into psychopaths (Jeffery Dahlmer, Hitler)...but the connections to their suffering is merely anecdotal.
