Why is it that I constantly hear I want my child to have the best from parents instead of I want my child to earn the best?

Because we live in a country that punishes earning and glorifies mooching.

Forgiveness Man wrote:

Because we live in a country that punishes earning and glorifies mooching.

I don't know because when I think about that phrase, I think in terms of the parents want better for their kids than they had, not earned, had, which I take to meaning like good clothes, a good bed, enough food, etc. stuff like that.

Tony Marino wrote:

Why is it that I constantly hear I want my child to have the best from parents instead of I want my child to earn the best?

I don't think I've ever heard that.

well... my mother gave me everything... but im not a rotten person. you need to instill values and morals.... my mother told me that school was my "job" and she did not want me to work until i graduated--- being that i would work the rest of my life. So in her eyes, I "earned" thru school work.

When they say they want their child to have the best, that doesn't necessarily mean they're spoiling them or intend to spoil them. I want my kids to have the best, but I know I'm going to be a firm mother. Most of the time, it means having the opportunities and things they've never had. People automatically assume you want to buy your kid everything and be materialistic when you say that phrase. Not true.

My parents were not able to give my sisters and me many things but they wished they could have. One of those things was a college education. But both my sisters and I worked our way through school or quit school to work and then go back and all of us got our degrees.

I will never forget the day my younger sister got her college degree my dad said, "Now I have three kids with college degrees!" He was not an emotional man but you could see the pride on his face and in his voice.

Both my parents were intelligent enough to go to college but both had to work to help support their families during the Depression and did not have the money to go.

So when my parents said they wanted the best for their kids, they were talking about an education as high as we could go.

I don't know, Tony. But I swear, so many parents go out of their way to give, give, give and don't expect the kiddos to do a darn thing.

Personally, I like my son having nice things, but as soon as he starts to be an idiot, those nice things go away. And in order to get them in the first place, there are expectations.

What I have noticed is parents liking to brag to others about what little johnny has. It is pretty sickening. I think people place a lot of self worth in what they can afford their offspring.