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Raising Pampered Kids
March 14, 2007
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
-Helen Keller
-Helen Keller
The Wall Street Journal recently estimated that families in the top-third income bracket in the USA will spend from $800,000 to $1.6 million to raise a child born in 2005 through age 17 (“The Million Dollar Kid”, March 4, 2007). In introducing these projections the Journal observed, “With the debate about the country’s wealth gap heating up again, pampered kids provide some of the most dramatic examples, from toddlers in $800 strollers to 10-year-olds with cellphones.”
The Journal projections were based upon a survey of parents’ spending habits. Among the expenses included in the projections are…
- enrollment in child care and private schools ($96,000)
- tutoring ($75,000)
- gas spent transporting children ($18,394)
- iTunes downloads ($3,600)
- babyGap wardrobe ($6,205)
- organic groceries for child ($50,000)
- acne treatment during teen years ($11,000)
- car as 16th birthday present ($23,000)
- swimming pool in back yard ($60,000)
- designer handbags for teenage girls ($4,000)
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Get Your Classroom Singing with CIRCLE OF SONGS
These CD/Songbook sets were created to promote group singing at circle time. The simple presentation of developmentally-appropriate music activities and photo-illustrated songbooks make singing fun for everyone!
Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsUnited States
Since when is providing organic products for your family considered 'pampering?' I think that is completely bogus. Wal-Mart carries organic products that are completely affordable (if you budget well). I don't purchase the other items on the list for my toddler, but the organic food was something that caught my attention, and that I think is ridiculous is on the list.
So, if you take your child to McDonald's, (or heck, even SHOP at Wal-Mart) does that make you fit into "another class" category?
Bath, ME, United States
Please show the equivalent amount spent for children whose families are currently receiving TANF.
Rainbow Hill
Shickshinny, PA, United States
How unfortunate for these million dollar children...all the "stuff" in the world and yet what they need are just parents time and attention! As early childhood educators part of our job has got to be to help families balance all of the societal messages of more is better. Help them to identify their values as a family early on and support them with words and strategies to invest themselves in their children. . .eing the adoring listener, just singing songs and telling stories in the car as opposed to popping in the latest DVD, taking walks and talking instead of another movie on the couch, making playdoh at home, cutting down on birthday celebrations at Pony Paradise, and give parents permission to bow out of the preschool social scene, gifts of open ended stuff like office supplies, their own roll of masking tape, string, construction paper, scissors. Help families realize that less is actually more.
It is a tough sell when society says to buy. Telling families that eating together 3-5 times per week can produce a National Merit Scholar seems too easy, there must be something they can buy!
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