Growing up with everything
Plenty is not the problem. Never having to wait, work or wonder is. This section is about children who grow up with a great deal and turn out well.
The short version
Every wealthy parent has the same fear: the child who has everything and values nothing. The good news is that the research is clear. Children turn out grounded when they see effort rewarded, when they hear no often enough for yes to mean something, and when their parents talk about money instead of hiding it.
In this section
Rich Kids · 9 min read
Entitlement is not caused by money. It is caused by never waiting, never working and never hearing no. Wealthy families who raise grounded children do four things on purpose, and none of them costs anything.
Rich Kids · 8 min read
Each of the three arrives with a lesson attached. The watch teaches care, the car teaches consequence, the card teaches that money is real even when it is invisible. Get the age and the object right and the lesson comes free.
Rich Kids · 8 min read
A teenager's post is a map to the house, the school, the yacht and the parents' whereabouts. Families of means need rules that ordinary families do not, and they need them before the first phone, not after the first problem.
Yes, and not for money. Chores are how children learn that a household is work that somebody does. Pay for extra jobs if you like, but the bed, the table and the dog are simply part of living in the family.
When the child can look after it. For most that is around confirmation or sixteen, and the first watch should be a good, simple, mechanical piece rather than the most expensive one in the shop. It becomes an heirloom precisely because it was worn.
Talk about it early and plainly. Children notice differences by six. The rule that works: you never pay for a friend to make them feel small, and you never hide what you have to make them feel comfortable. Share generously, brag never.
