Reply to If you grew up poor, do you wish your kids did too?

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Reply to "If you grew up poor, do you wish your kids did too?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]10:19 here again, I messed up this response.

by "read through here," I didn't mean this particular thread. I mean these boards in general. There are a few threads on income and what people define as comfortable, and it always shocks me what people consider middle class, rich, et cetera. I get the impression there are a lot of wealthy people in this region who consider themselves merely middle class, but in reality, their lifestyles, et cetera, are definitely at the least upper middle class, but more likely upper class. And that perspective rubs off on the kids, so the kids grow up with a really strange view of what constitutes poor, middle class, wealthy. And a lot of kids don't really how affluent they really are compared to the rest of the nation and certainly the rest of the world. [/quote]

I always feel like the goal should be not to give kids anxiety about money BUT to instill in them that they already have a lot and cannot have everything they want because things cost a lot. I feel like the second part always gets lost in this area where there is so much affluence that even down to earth people fall into the keeping up with the Jones mentality. People here (esp on DCUM) have a warped view of what is middle versus upper class but lets face it, most of them are not SO upper class that they should not be prepping their kids for real life. Sure a family making 400k is doing fantastic but unless they are living a truly middle/lower middle lifestyle, they likely are not setting their kids up with trust funds that will last for life. Thus, there is a need to prep that kid for what real life is like -- i.e. when you graduate college and get your first job, you may not have the fanciest cable package there is, and you may not be jetting off to Europe for every vacation; even if a kid graduates and is a lawyer/doctor -- 150k-200k just will not buy the lifestyle right away that many kids are so used to that they feel like they "deserve" it. I think there's nothing wrong with controlling the mindset early -- be it that big presents are only for Christmas/bdays, we only buy clothes and shoes x times a year, or you get a fixed amount for clothes and shoes and if you blow it all on one item, that's it etc. I also agree that kids don't need constant activity that costs money -- there is no reason that they can't sit quietly in a car w/o a video screen or that they have to take a lesson in every sport/hobby they ever wanted to dabble in, even if it will be 5 min of real interest followed by a whole season of dabbling -- there is nothing wrong with saying no.[/quote]

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