Money is a very divisive topic. People with plenty enjoy the life it affords them, whereas people who lack it must find other ways to support themselves and their families. Unfortunately, children who grow up poor learn many hard lessons that benefit them later. Here are 18 valuable lessons only poor parents teach.
The Value of Material Things
Have you heard the expression ‘some people know the price of everything but the value of nothing’? That’s the mindset poor parents shield their children from by teaching them the value of material things. They can’t buy their children as much as wealthy parents, but the children know to be grateful for what they have.
The Need to Budget
When you have hardly any disposable income, budgeting is often the difference between eating or going hungry. It’s important for kids to learn how to budget to protect themselves. Investopedia recommends making a budget that prioritizes bills, eliminates unnecessary expenses, and adjusts spending. This is a crucial life skill all children should know.
The Tragedy of Wastefulness
We create billions of tonnes of waste every year, but it’s usually only poorer people who care. Rich people don’t need to worry about destroying valuable resources because they can more than fund their lives. When you grow up poor, you’re taught how tragic wastefulness is, and everything gets reused or recycled.
How to Improvise
When you’re caught in a tough financial situation, you regularly need to think on your feet. This could mean negotiating for lower prices, making meals with limited ingredients, or reusing household items for new purposes. Rich people often don’t teach their children to improvise because they won’t ever feasibly need to.
The Meaning of Hard Work
It’s unfair to accuse all rich people of having no work ethic because many worked their way up from nothing. However, people who inherited their wealth don’t teach their children the meaning of hard work the way current and previous poor parents do. Teaching children they must work for things is a valuable life lesson.
The Need For Charity
Charities do so much important work and rarely get the credit they deserve. Poor parents who have relied on charities to keep their families fed, clothed, and warm teach their children the significance of charity. Rich parents, on the other hand, have no need for charity, so they often forget about it.
The Power of Education
Education is one pathway to follow out of poverty. According to the United Nations, the global poverty rate could be halved if everybody finished secondary school. Poor parents know this, so they teach their children to stick with education because it makes it easier to get a good job with a high salary later on.
How to Have Fun For Free
Unfortunately, toys and activities are expensive for many children, so they often miss out. To compensate, their parents teach them how to have fun for free, whether this means going to free attractions or making up their own games. These memories are just as meaningful as those of wealthy children.
How to Manage a Household
No matter how much money you have, knowing how to manage a household is important. Children with poor parents typically grow up managing household tasks and chores to keep everything in order, which teaches them exactly what to do. Children from well-off families usually don’t do the same growing up.
Not to Be Prideful
There’s no shame in accepting financial help when you’re struggling, and poor parents know this. After all, pride won’t keep a roof over your head, food in your fridge, or your electricity switched on. The children of wealthy parents don’t know these struggles, so they’re never instructed to put their pride aside.
How to Chase Bargains
Thanks to inflation, necessities are now more expensive than ever. But people who grew up poor know how to chase bargains because their parents taught them how. From couponing to choosing near-expired products, bargains are often crucial for survival. Rich parents don’t need to teach their children about bargains because they can afford necessities.
Self-Sufficiency
Too many rich parents don’t bother teaching their kids self-sufficiency, an integral life skill. When money is tight, self-sufficient people do things like collect rainwater, grow their own food, and make their own clothes. Though no child should grow up before their time, being self-sufficient helps make their lives a bit easier.
That the World is Unfair
It’s a terrible reality, but poor parents are forced to teach their children early on that the world is unfair. The New York Times observes how wealthy people nowadays are more self-serving, often refusing to improve society for poorer people. They usually raise children with similar mindsets who can’t see the wealth disparities.
How to Be Frugal
Another valuable lesson poor parents teach is how to be frugal. Money is a security blanket for rich people, so frugality is a foreign concept to them. Poor parents lack this continuous financial security, so they teach their kids how to save money by buying secondhand, saving water and electricity, and never wasting anything.
Problem-Solving
Part of the reason why being poor is so emotionally and physically exhausting is the constant problems. It’s easy to live a conventional life when you can afford everything you need, but you have to get creative when you can’t. Poor parents raise their children to be resilient problem-solvers who can always find a solution.
How to Advocate For Themselves
Unfortunately, much of affluent society still looks down on poorer people, accusing them of being lazy, uneducated, or unmotivated. That’s why poor parents teach their children the valuable lesson of advocacy. Being able to speak up against mistreatment confidently and ask for help is vital in life.
How to Persevere
When things are tough, you have to persevere if you want to keep moving forward. That’s what poor parents teach their kids, and they’re right. Rich parents teach their children to get ahead in different ways, thanks to the stability money provides, but poorer children must be self-reliant and resilient.
The Importance of Money
People who claim money doesn’t buy happiness clearly haven’t known genuine poverty. Forbes reports that a lack of money is associated with stress, poorer health, and greater emotional pain. That’s why poor parents can truly teach the importance of money and how it can change lives. For rich parents, that lesson is still in progress.
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