Mom, I Want to be Rich

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a question we often ask kids. There’s always all kinds of answers…doctor, fireman, police officer…etc. Of course there are always some fun and quirky answers.

What would you do if your kid told you he or she just wanted to be rich? Well, that was the number one answer coming out of a survey in Britain. Famous came in number two. While we smile and giggle at these “aspirations”, I have to admit I think it’s sad.

Images of rich and famous people are obviously influencing our kids. Are we not teaching them to have real “dream” jobs that involve education and hard work?

Seventy-five percent of kids surveyed also said that money could buy happiness. If that were the case there would be a lot more happy people out there. We all know that’s not the case.

Other real jobs like doctor and veterinarian did make the list, just a little further down. The big kicker is that some kids say they don’t want to work at all! That was number ten.

I remember getting my first job at sixteen, making peanuts, but thinking I was “rich” because I now had my own money. There was a sense of accomplishment for doing a job and getting rewarded for it. I’m afraid those days are long gone.