Are wealthy children happier than poorer children?



The general belief is that the rich tend to pamper their children by buying them all sorts of ?toys?, while the poorer peoples do not do this because they cannot afford to. It is usually presented in stories ? especially movies ? that rich children are a menace while those from the poorer families struggle all their lives. Consequently, it may be believed that children from rich families are happier than those from the poorer ones. This may be the case in some instances, but is definitely not always true.

Children can be happy whether they are from rich or poor families. We hear cases of where the poor families make all sorts of sacrifices so that their children ? or one of them ? can have a certain comfort. Fathers are known to work at extra jobs so that their children can have expensive toys for Christmas or for their birthdays.

On the other hand, the children of the rich are not always given everything that they desire. Wealthy fathers have been known to make their children work for a living and earn their pocket money. Other fathers have refused to give their children expensive toys so that they will learn the value of hard work. Hence, it is not the riches of the parents that can make a child happy but how parents deal with their children.

Happiness can never be equated with having money or having rich and wealthy parents for that matter. It is possible that poor parents have a close relationship with their child. In this way the child has something far better; it has love. Having enough love, the child will be happy ? at least much happier than if it did not receive love.

On the other hand it is possible that the child of rich parents has everything she wants but does not get the love and concern that she needs. The parents of wealthy children are sometimes too busy spending their money and earning more. Often we hear stories of ?poor little rich children?. Though many of the stories that we hear are based upon fiction, however, some are real indeed.

Sometime the parents of rich children believe that their child will be happy if he/she is provided with everything he/she needs. They try to substitute money for love and care. In such instances, the wealthy child can be very happy indeed. In addition, children brought up in this way tend to be poor in relationships. They do not know how to value things like friendships. Such a child is poor indeed, in spite of being financially rich.

Using money and surrounding him with all sorts of ?toys? the child is apt to grow up with a wrong sense of what true happiness really is. When the time comes for him to realize the fact that money cannot always buy happiness, he will not know which way to turn.

Therefore, children from rich or wealthy parents may not always be happier than those from poorer families. In fact both are capable of being happy, with or without money.