Wealthy Kids

This is something I have been thinking on for many years. I really enjoyed this entire book.

“A study of affluent suburban families found that the dogged pursuit of status and material wealth beyond a $120,000-per year family income starts adversely affecting children…by the time they were in high school, wealthy kids reported greater use of cigarettes, alcohol and hard drugs than any other control group—including inner city kids. They also showed higher rates of depression and anxiety, especially girls, who were three times more likely than average teenage girls to exhibit clinically significant depression. The researchers found that isolation from adults played a major part of the problem. The demands of parents’ professional careers and kids’ excessive extra-curricular activities ate away family time and fed into the kids’ distress. Worse, the increasing patter of family members to retreat to their respective bedrooms with a television, computer and mobile phone, isolate family and community, plants the seed for the final home wrecker—individualism. ~ Shannon Hayes, Radical Homemakers