'I really crave a simpler existence for them': Family making over $1 million per year wishes their children could live a normal life

Personal Finance

Published: September 25, 2024 8:30 am

If you haven’t fallen down the rabbit hole that is Reddit, what do you do with all of your spare time? From particle physics and epidemiology to ridiculous wedding scenarios and intriguing parenting quandaries, Reddit covers an array of topics that will make your cerebral wheels spin.

Like this user’s question: Those with young children… do you ever crave a middle-class childhood for them? Reared in a middle-class household, she describes her childhood as idyllic. Thirty years later, she is concerned that her family’s current lifestyle is not her vision for her children, who are both currently under three years old.

Her husband works long hours in finance, and though she is now a stay-at-home mom, she too, used to work in the financial sector. This has provided the family with financial stability, allowing the young family to live what she describes as an affluent life. Her children’s basic needs are covered, but she wonders if they’re not missing what was fundamental to middle-class childhood: simplicity and community.

The Issue

While she parses the issue as socio-economic, the reality is more complex. When speaking with the novelist Thomas Wolfe, the writer Ella Winter said, “Don’t you know you can’t go home again?” Gone are the days when gangs of neighborhood kids gathered organically in the cul-de-sac after school to play kickball.

These days, across a spectrum of socio-economic backgrounds, many children have extended school days, whiling away their afternoons in after-school programs. The kids who do get picked up are often over-scheduled, with an array of appointments and extra-curricular activities. Now factor in the technology that informs our daily lives, of which there was only an inkling during her magical childhood.

Among the many differences between what is quickly becoming the mid-2000s and the late 1900s is evolving technology. Touted to simplify our lives, technology has done the opposite. While smartphones and smart homes do offer convenience, they also introduce a barrage of notifications, information overload, and the pressure to stay connected. So, what’s the remedy?

The Remedy

Her financial stability puts her in an enviable position, allowing her to choose where and how she lives. Her family is presently living in an affluent city, which she describes as having multimillion-dollar homes that house spoiled children whose parents are, by and large, lushes.

Fulfilling her desire to live more simply, she should seek community with like-minded individuals. Still too young to have been affected by the pitfalls present on the internet and inherent in social media, relocating to a low-tech community sounds like what she is craving for her children. Keeping her children’s childhood screen-free in a community that honors low-tech children, is a good start. Even Silicon Valley CEOs agree that technology is not for children.

Staying connected to and instilling reverence for the natural world in her children is another way she can evoke the wonder of her childhood. Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better, according to Albert Einstein. It really isn’t rocket science. And as another wise man, Henry David Thoreau suggested years before the advent of technology, We often go through life exhausted because we take on too many things, bring too much complexity to our days, and don’t have time to enjoy life. We are in need of simplifying our lives!