This is a fluff piece written by someone in a rich bubble.
The 2 year old and 4 year old have no concept of money, the 4 year old did not “do most of the work” in a lemonade stand, and they do not have “their own money” to spend. Picking up after yourself and putting dishes in the sink are not chores, and kids this age aren’t taking out the trash - of course they enjoy it when mummy does it and makes a big deal of how grown up the kids are for helping, and probably rewards then for it.
None of the ideas are innovative or relevant to most parents, and particularly not with a kids that age. This is just one rich bored parent with young kids sharing their “experiences”. Pretty out of touch with reality.
$150 a month for her dog’s health insurance…
And she’s calling herself “middle class” like she lives in the burbs…
The wealthy always think of themselves as “middle class” because they know people wealthier.
Just because billionaires exist doesn’t mean millionaires who take annual child free vacations are suddenly “middle class”.
They just don’t want to actually admit they’re wealthy and wasting a shit ton of money that should be going to taxes.
I worry that she actually is “middle class” and the wealth disparity has moved to the point that those of us who cannot spend $150 on pet insurance or drop $750,000+ on a house or $100,000 on a truck are effectively “poor”, at least as far as the market is concerned.
I mean, it should be median income/wealth, then a standard deviation either way.
But capitalism doesn’t care about people, it cares about money. That’s the only way the “middle class” can be defined differently.
Don’t let capitalism define words.
Where does she claim to be middle class? It seems she recognizes she was middle class as a kid, but now is not, considering she said “were” instead of “are.”
I have a very different take away from this and that she knows she is wealthy, and trying to impart the understanding of their luck onto her kids…I don’t see her at all denying her wealth.
She did say that she grew up middle class and sometimes her family couldn’t afford pizza. If you can’t afford one of the most cost effective ways to feed a family without making the food yourself, you’re not middle class. Now she’s rich and lying about lemonade stands. It’s embarrassing that someone with no idea what middle class means is writing an article about teaching kids about money.
Erm, not arguing that this lady is middle class, but dog insurance cost is not remotely relevant to that lol. I pay that for my dog and make less than 6 figures. My dog is just really important to me, and our last dog cost us thousands and thousands of dollars on vet bills. I’m not going to be blindsided dropping $5k in a day on vet bills again. Our dog has insurance because it seems like the financially responsible thing to do, especially when your dog is extremely active and engaging in sports that it may be injured doing.
So-called upper middle class: “I’m middle class because there are people richer than me”
So-called lower middle class: “I’m middle class because there are people poorer than me”
IMO the middle class is an illusion
Middle class is paycheck to paycheck, has been for a while.
I’m lucky enough I can stack retirement and I got a house when it was (comparatively cheap).
If we’re splitting the classes by median income (assets could be done, but people in the middle class by median are lucky to even have a mortgage on a home) then it’s about 40k for an individual and 75k for a household. And I’m solidly “upper class” even though I’ll never amass more than a million in assets unless real estate inflation jumps past Ludacris and into plaid.
The fact that anyone with a million in assets, let alone cash/stocks would consider themselves “middle class” just tells you stupid people can luck out and become millionaires.
It’s a level of delusion that is actual impressive.
So the “middle class” that’s a single income, house in the burbs, two cars, vacations every year…
That shits gone. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a statistical middle class.
I make less than 100k a year and my dogs insurance costs about that much. I didn’t have insurance for him before because he was young and healthy but then he tore his ACL and the surgery set me back 6.5K. That wasn’t exactly a drop in the bucket for me, at the time I had less than half of that in savings, and had to max out my credit card. So now yeah it sucks having to pay that much but if he does get a bad injury or illness - obviously I really hope that doesn’t happen and I have him for many more years to come - as he grows older, it will cost me way less as a lump sum.
That last sentence is odd. What do you mean should be going to taxes? Sounds like you define wealthy by what taxes they pay. I know the billionaires have lots of loopholes to pay a lower percent, is using those loopholes your deciding factor?
You’re talking “should” legally…
I’m talking “should” ethically, but really, they “should” have never made that wealth to begin with.
Idk why you guys are so obsessed about millionaires here. We aren’t some evil devils that you can put all the blame for your problems on. It’s just life some are wealthier some are poorer. It was like that since forever and it will be like this forever except in this system you also have a chance for success unlike feudalism where everything was 100% predetermined.
In literally every system that ever existed there was someone wealthier and someone poorer what matters is the dynamics, can the poorer become wealthy, can the wealthy lose money if they stop being productive proportionally to their wealth? This is the problem
Idk why you guys are so obsessed about millionaires here
Because they keep denying they’re the 1% and claim to be “middle class” and need tax breaks because the 0.1% exist.
When they’re still causing problems for the rest of the 99%
It was like that since forever and it will be like this forever
At this point, it’s real hard to think you’re not trolling…
Like just statistically, very very few people would ever legitimately try to use that argument these days after sooooooooooo many people have been shooting it down for centuries.
If progress wasn’t possible, shit wouldn’t have fucking progressed.
Quick edit:
Completely unsurprised by that post history
“Look! My kids are almost like other kids, except they’re spoiled-wealthy-at-birth!”
–businessinsider.com
Every parent wants to spoil their kids. So they have it better than they had at their age. It’s just how it is. Your parents couldn’t afford Lego? You will buy the biggest set etc
I looked for past articles from her on Business Insider. She is middle class, like rest of us. Which middle class person doesn’t hire an accountant and spend $1000 per month to make parenting easy!
I was pleasantly surprised by this sentence:
But I made it a point to explain [to my children] that while sometimes being homeless can be a result of not making good choices, sometimes it’s a result of not having good choices.
It smacks of empathy, which is more than I expected. Whatever one may think of the author, she’s trying to teach her children to be better, and that counts for something.
I’m putting my foot down! No more than fifteen presents!
What the actual fuck?
Also, what’s the deal with the golf cart? Why do they have a golf cart?
It’s quite common here to have one for driving around neighbourhoods, as cheap ones can be $1,000+.
That still does not answer my “why” question tbh.
But I suppose that in a country where “walkable neighborhoods” are construed to be some nefarious communist plot to rob people of their freedom, not walking its a status symbol.
Yeah the why is laziness I guess? Why walk when you can drive a smaller electric buggy for small distances and a big car for big distances?
Golf carts make sense in retirement communities - presumably the companies behind them are “growing the market” by targeting families as an alternative to push chairs and walking? Also I’m guessing these are American neighbourhoods which still are designed around cars than true walkability?
Imagine spending $1,000+ when walking is free.
I can imagine someone with a disability wanting a cart like this to get around, but this woman does not need a fucking golf cart.
We’re all going to die because of this overconsumption bullshit.
Does someone having one prevent someone from getting one?
My friends have one because they have a baby and no car. Is their consumption too much for you?
Why should everyone live exactly how you want them to?
Can I do an audit of your life and switch everything over to how I think you should live?
I tell ya, the present thing is rough. When I was a kid, I got cards from aunts and uncles. But now they all send gifts. So there is 5 gifts right there. Then there is the grandparents. They have so much time to shop, they can bring 5+ gifts for each kid and only spend $50. So we are already at 15 and we didn’t even buy anything yet. It’s nuts.
Also, everything seems to have to be a gift now. Can’t just buy a thing and give it to them. It has to wait to be a present. Or maybe that’s just my wife.
But also, when I was a kid, even in the rural area I lived, there was a convenience story where we could buy gum, or baseball cards and stuff for very little money. Now a pack of Pokémon is like $6 for way less cards. The only cheap things kids can buy is candy, and we aren’t supposed to let them do that anymore either. So everything ends up as a present.
Also, everything seems to have to be a gift now. Can’t just buy a thing and give it to them. It has to wait to be a present. Or maybe that’s just my wife.
We specifically don’t wait for holidays to give things we want to gift to our daughter (soon to be 3). On her birthday in two weeks she will get a book, a plush animal, and a second hand peppa pig puzzle (I hate peppa pig but she loves it and she doesn’t even know there is a show). That’s it, but she gets many things throughout the year. My husband hates holidays and celebrations, I think that’s where this feeling of “let’s please not make a huge stock of presents to give her twice a year” came from. And it is so much less pressure to find “the perfect gift”.
And you can get rid of things much more easily. I don’t know about you, but if I got a bad birthday present, I tend to keep it, because it was a birthday present. Same for children’s stuff. She got that for her first birthday feels different than she got that when she was around 14 months. Somehow it’s less sentimental, and I am an awfully sentimental and nostalgic person, so this saves my ass.
Another point is that can change interests so quickly. I would not dare to buy her something peppa pig themed right now for Christmas or plan ahead for her 4th birthday. Or let’s say she needs a new bike - why would I wait until the end of summer to give it to her just because it’s her birthday.
But talk to me again on September 9th, I usually get very sad that we don’t celebrate with a crap ton of presents and decorations and a big party right before her birthday.
My sister has a 3-row golf cart and I have no idea why. If I even ask she’s going to think I’m shaming her for being wealthy 😂
This reads exactly like my sister, if there wasn’t a photo I would think it was written by her. She has a closet filled with presents she is waiting to give her kids because they have too many at one given time
This is so tone deaf and privileged. Fuck this woman and this article.
Nothing funnier than seeing a bunch of Lemmings argue about the definition of middle class.
