Checks & Baalnces

Let’s be honest, being a parent anywhere in the world is hard, but it can definitely vary depending on where you are and what resources you have. If you are rich, you will be rich everywhere but your money will go further in some places more than others. If you are poor, you will find hardships no matter where you go because life is expensive everywhere even if you have less.

Money is not the root of evil, but it does have a lot of power over our current society and can change your whole life. People who grew up with money view it differently and don’t always appreciate the value if they didn’t have to work hard for what they have. Those who grew up without will never forget the memories from their childhood and it has a lasting impact on their life and how they view the world.

There is a line between abundance and wealth versus greed and surplus. If you have enough to feed yourself, you should feed thy neighbor. Our society has evolved in communities to support one another and help each other thrive. Whenever people experience extreme hardships such as the loss of a loved one, losing a job or a house fire, communities come together to help families out in need. However, when hard working people aren’t experiencing any extreme hardships, but just do not make enough money to afford their basic needs because the cost of living is rising and the pay wages stay the same, we turn a blind eye.

Where is the community when people can barely afford to buy groceries? What about the families that are struggling to give their kids new clothes? It feels like these causes are growing bigger and bigger yet the support is only shrinking.

We all have our own worries and it is hard to keep extending yourself if you are not able to do so. Most of the time, those who experienced hardships or poverty as a child and are now living comfortably are the ones donating to these causes because they understand how it feels. Yes there are affluent people who donate to charities and make themselves more rich by their philanthropy for tax cuts, but when do you see them helping their neighbor or a random person in need?

Our world is surrounded by inequalities and the wealth distribution is extremely out of balance. Those working the hardest, are making the least and taking the biggest risks working dangerous jobs to just live. While there are people who never worked hard a day in their life, only to become the richest person in the world.

There are lots of stories about people who grew up poor and are now super rich, but we forget about the whole picture and only pick out what we want to hear. We think, “oh wow, they did it so it must be super easy” but it is actually not easy and that is why there are less rich people than there are poor.

To become rich there are many factors that are involved, usually the most important is how much free time you have and how many bills you need to pay. If you are making good money in a stable job and can slowly work on your business goals and use your money from your job to support your projects, you can achieve success over time but it may not be right away.

When you have more free time and less bills because you are depending on others such as family members, friends, etc. So when people say that they “did it all by themselves” it is most likely not fully true. Did they really already have a house paid for and not needing to pay any bills to live there while they worked on their business? Did they have food made for them and always available?

When you grow up in privilege, these things seem like standards and you expect them because your family always provided them for you. These people who live in a bubble may never realize how much privilege they really have and will continue to tell themselves that they found success all on their own.

Yes maybe they had the idea, put in the work and focused to get it done, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have support from others to make that goal possible.

Time freedom is the biggest luxury and if you have the ability to use it how you want, you will be able to achieve your goals with more success.

For example, there are multiple billionaires right now that fall into this category (Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Besos). If you look at their stories, they are all different but share many similarities. First of all, the intersectionality of their demographics enable them to achieve more in our society. They are all white males that come from families that had opportunities and wealth, although there were sometimes struggles that all people deal with such as divorce, alcoholism, etc.

If you didn’t know already, Jeff Bezos accepted a $300,000 investment from his parents to create Amazon. So I guess if your parents have some extra cash laying around, you might be the next billionaire! (Mystery solved) Sound familiar? Like a small loan of a million dollars?

People who believe that this is normal and think that they still “did it all by themselves” are feeding into the lies of capitalism. I understand being optimistic and thinking positively to achieve your goals and it is not impossible, but it’s way easier when you get loans from your family or if you are already financially stable.

As a parent there is a lot of pressure from society to feel like we are doing our best and always trying to make more money and achieve more success. To tell the truth, as long as you are providing love and support for your children, they have all that they need. Do they really need a specialized backpack or a million toys? Not really, but of course it’s nice to have quality things when we can and ensure good values for material things.

The most important part of our job is being present and showing our love. If you are doing your best, you are doing enough. Give yourself grace and know that not everyone has it altogether as it may seem and we all have our own stories.