Reply to Have you ever had to discuss class with your kids? If so, how did you do it?

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to "Have you ever had to discuss class with your kids? If so, how did you do it?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My very kind and influential dc just got into a youth group that is supposed to be composed of people in their ethnic, cultural background. The only issue is that these kids have only one thing in common with dc, race/skin color.  
They have nothing else in common, not country of origin, religion, language, social class, economic class....
We are different. 
The idea for this youth group came from the school and it brings together kids from all over who are labeled the same way on a form with regards to race. 
Most of the families are so very different from us. We are middle class (low middle) academicians who teach at local colleges. None of the other families was similar. Many wealthier, many with less money, most less educated. Overall very different. 
[b]They simply aren't people that we would spend any amount of time with. [/b]
More interestingly, I completely disagree with the opinions of the group leaders. I know that they are trying to help, but to me, they are making matters worse. 
[b]I need to explain to dc why this group just doesn't work for our family.[/b] Not an easy discussion. Dc liked the group....
[/quote]

You are pretty snobby, even though you doth protest. First of all, this is about a group of kids. The kids did not ask to be born into their particular families. It is not their fault that they are wealthy or less educated than you are, and yet you are discriminating against them because of who they are without giving them a chance. Do you trust your kid? If he likes the group, and the kids seem nice (and, guess what, there are nice kids in every socio-economic class), why would you prevent your child from making friends from different backgrounds? I think it's great for kids to meet people who come from different cultures, regardless of their class. This is the beauty of living in a diverse city.

Also, you need to get over your insecurity. As a professor myself with kids at a "big-3" private school, we do live in a modest house compared to many families in the school. But, I always tell my children that we make our choices. I wouldn't give up my incredibly flexible schedule and tenure for a big house in Potomac. Also, relatively speaking, we ARE rich. We live in a small townhouse, but it's in a safe, clean neighborhood. We always have food on the table, functioning cars, warm clothes in the winter, heat and AC, etc. We don't travel to Europe for the summers, but we do go on great roadtrips to national parks (and we have the TIME to do so). I know with my PhD in my particular field, I could have gone into the consulting field and earn multiples of what I do now, but I chose not to because this is the life I want for my family. My kids are friends with families who seem to have much, much more money than we do, and that's not a problem. Sometimes class issues come up, but they have so much in common that doesn't rely up class. They play soccer, minecraft, FIFA, etc. They watch silly videos on youtube and toss the football around. That is why they are friends, not because as parents we have so much in common. And, btw, the parents are pretty good people, too. I find that with kids, we have a lot in common, in fact. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics