Why our kids expect to be rich...

[Munchkin03]

I don't know. The only kids I know who "expect" to be rich are the ones who have upper-middle class backgrounds--so, hey, they have a better shot at making more money than the average Joe Blow.

As people wait until they are doing very well in their careers to start a family, a lot of their kids don't see the hard work that their parents put in before they were born. When people started families younger, the kids saw the parents sacrifice and work really hard to provide, so they had a more realistic perspective. Now, when kids see their parents working from home half the time, remodeling the house at a whim, and going on lavish trips, they didn't see the 10-15 years of hard, hard work that allowed them to have that lifestyle. So, they think it takes a minimal effort. A lot of my friends had that experience--they had no idea what their parents went through before they were born.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I don't know. The only kids I know who "expect" to be rich are the ones who have upper-middle class backgrounds--so, hey, they have a better shot at making more money than the average Joe Blow.

As people wait until they are doing very well in their careers to start a family, a lot of their kids don't see the hard work that their parents put in before they were born. When people started families younger, the kids saw the parents sacrifice and work really hard to provide, so they had a more realistic perspective. Now, when kids see their parents working from home half the time, remodeling the house at a whim, and going on lavish trips, they didn't see the 10-15 years of hard, hard work that allowed them to have that lifestyle. So, they think it takes a minimal effort. A lot of my friends had that experience--they had no idea what their parents went through before they were born.

I totally agree with this.

I've always wanted to do better than my parents, and I think a lot of kids want the same. I don't think anything's wrong with that. I do think a lot of the things that are shown on T.V. like some of the videos, gives some kids a false impression of wealth. It's like they see these videos with fancy cars and really hot girls/guys so then they wanna live this lifestyle as well, and it's not that easy.

[33girl]

I do think the media has a lot to do with it. This struck me over the weekend, actually, cleaning out old stuff at Dad 33's. 15-20 years ago we didn't have InStyle or Teen People magazines that are all about celebrity lifestyles - not to say we didn't have celebrity focused magazines, just not to the degree of celebrating the THINGS they had that those do. Same with TV - Entertainment Tonight was it. Now we have E! plus however many other cable channels that are totally focused on celebrities. You see that 24/7 and start thinking celebrities are just like you, so why are you not living like that?

not to mention the proliferation of home decorating/shopping shows and magazines featuring "real" people. Trading Spaces started out as a fun idea, now it's gotten to the point where people think there's something wrong if they don't redo their houses every month. It's completely insane.

I don't think it's totally the media - there are most definitely parents who put in their kids' heads these notions - but if you compare the media from a while ago to what it is now, it definitely plays a big part.