By: Natasha Archary
The innocence of children means that most don’t know or understand the difference between wealth and poverty until they reach a certain age.
Because parents seldom show their kids that they are struggling to make ends meet, kids often grow up sheltered from the stark reality that their parents cannot afford to spoil them often.
On Feel Good with Andy Maqondwana, listeners shared that moment they thought they were rich/poor until…
Explaining rich and poor to kids
Or a circumstance drives home the point that their family simply cannot afford to buy them new clothes, or even eat out like other families do.
Explaining the concept of rich and poor to children can be confusing because they don’t quite grasp the complexities of the big world yet.
Their understanding of having a lot of money and having very little money can be as simple as, “my friend Thabang says his daddy is rich because he drives a BMW. They also have a pool in their house and go on holiday to Durban. Why are we not rich?”
Children start seeing the differences between their worlds and that of their peers from the age of around 7 or 8-years.
Once they’re in school and notice that other children have new things every other day, or get loads of spending money when they don’t.
This is when their curiosity starts to peak and they start to question life or figure it out for themselves that their family is either rich or according to their understanding, poor.
Feel Good listeners share when they thought they were rich/poor until…
Times were different for a lot of families back in the ‘good ol’ days” and the cost of living back then was relatively lower than it is right now.
But because job opportunities were still very limited and the earning bracket wasn’t as competitive as it is now, it meant many families still couldn’t afford the “soft life.”
Single parent households also put a large number of families in South Africa on the back foot financially.
With many families, particularly black families in rural areas, living of the land, the need to live a life of comparison with another simply did not exist for most.
That’s changed however, with the invention of social media and the “influential” lifestyle people are pressured into achieving.
“I knew we were not rich when we would receive food hampers from the church for Christmas. While other families were donating to the church, we were one of the family’s that was receiving the donations.”
One Feel Good listener shared with Andy
“When I was in high school, I realised I was in school with “Beyoncé” when my school put together a tour of Europe. Like it wasn’t a trip to Durban, no, it was a trip to France to visit the Louvre Museum and the UK.”
A listener shared how she knew her family was well off
“I realised I was well off when my mom used to pack me like a picnic-style lunchbox while my friends would just have a peanut butter sandwich. I’d take something different every day, biltong, dried fruit, nuts, cheese wedges, strawberries. It’s something that I am grateful for because now my kids get that from me.”
Another listener who realised she had a silver spoon in her mouth, and is grateful for it
