Reply to Do you care if your DC has perspective about their privilege?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the community that you live in is more important than the school they attend for this.

But what you can do is welcome all classmates equally and not ignore the ones that come from further away or less money. Your children will judge what is important and who is worthy from watching you. Don't make comments about old cars or small houses etc, don't disparage others who make less or have less for any reason.

At times play on lower cost rec teams, attend lower cost camps, or do free/low cost type activities as part of what you do and don't put them down as being "less." Make playdate with kids/families meet through these things.

That's my advice, provide lots of exposure and little judgement. Show them the value in all people and in the spaces that they inhabit.

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I am a middle class FA family and I agree with this. Just be welcoming to families that have less than you. Occasionally I encounter parents at school that are obviously uncomfortable and do not know how to relate to a person in a peer setting that is clearly not rich. These parents are what happens to rich children when they grow up with no perspective. [b]The small comments you make about bad neighborhoods, small houses, crappy cars, etc, are exactly the things you don't realize your children are absorbing. You might be directly teaching your children good manners and how to behave at the country club, but you are indirectly teaching them that others are truly beneath you/them. That core foundational belief is pretty unshakeable once it is set. [/b]

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+1
People who are less well off than you financially are not just objects of charity.  (Indeed, some of them don't need charity at all, they just can't afford a SFH or a new car or a European vacation.)  You need to ensure that your kids interact on a regular basis with people who don't live like you.  They need to be in social situations where you and they interact with people who live in apartments or go to public school or drive old cars or whatever as peers and friends, not recipients of your generosity or employees.

And it's not enough not to buy them everything they want.  They need to learn to solve problems in ways other than throwing money at them (and see you doing that).  
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