IS YOUR CHILD RICH OR POOR?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 16, 13 October 1939, Page 15

IS YOUR CHILD RICH OR POOR?

There is no doubt that extreme poverty spells hardship and unhappiness for the child. But extreme riches-and the pampering of the over-indulgent parent-can also end in hardship and unhappiness. Physical and material benefits are by no means the only ones worth having, and the child who finds his play with sticks and mud at his mother’s side can be rich in initiative and imagination-both invaluable assets to the grown man. His wealthy comrade, on the other hand, for all that he is surrounded by the comforts and extravagances that money can buy, may be the poorest mite for loneliness and boredom. Of the twa, assuming reasonable health for each, the "poor" child is by far the richer. To provide proper play equipment is reasonable and good. The damaging thing is to anticipate the child’s every wish until we’ve denied him the pleasure of wishing at all. Often the parents who indulge their children act from very real affection. They may have sprung, themselves, from very impoverished beginnings and wish, naturally enough, to shower on their children all the advantages they lacked in their own childhood. It is not easy to be wise, to strike a balance in these matters, but it is well worth doing. The greatest, and the unpurchasable, gift is your own time and interest, your friendship and your active cooperation: and on this rests your child’s ultimate

poverty or wealth,

KAY