Do "Over the top" birthday parties bother you?

MomLive
Sun, 27 Feb 2011 18:18:23 +0000

We had a young lady working in our department while trying to get into medical school who was brought up this way. Even though she was making $50k working for us, her parents still foot the bill for a lot of her lifestyle.

She was very blunt about the fact that the reason she was going to medical school was so she could maintain that expensive lifestyle. To that end, I guess it could be a good motivator but, on the other hand, I felt a little sorry for her. She had some ambivalent feelings about tackling a medical career and yet, she felt she couldn’t be happy without $300 shoes and expensive cars and houses. She also felt she would be a failure in her parents eyes if she didn’t achieve that level of income. It seems sort of sad. On a positive note, she was smart enough to realize she couldn’t just depend on a future spouse to provide her with that lifestyle either.

It is hard. I see my son struggling with this. There are certain career paths he finds interesting and yet he knows will not allow him to live the lifestyle he was brought up in. It can put kids in a difficult spot.