Standing in line this weekend at Target with my brood of children the cashier laughed and said
“Wow you guys are in for it when they get to college huh?
I simply said no. We do not intend to pay for college.
He looked at me bewildered, as if this is something I haven’t thought through. He smirked after his initial confusion wore off thinking I will change my mind in 12 years when OG is filling out his applications. I can’t say for sure what is going to happen in 13 years, but at this point I do not, and will not save money for their college education.
You do not respect what you do not work for.
Lets be brutally honest right now.
We are raising a generation of kids that thinks they are entitled to a 200 dollar cell phone before middle school, $200 dollar shoes made in a factory by working slaves, and whatever else it is they think they can’t possibly live without. They think it is their birth rite to be given whatever they want with the least amount of effort.
Well I’m not so much into that.
College is the same thing except with a much higher price tag, and I am not just talking about the actual cost.
My kids will have to figure out how to pay for school themselves. They are not going to get an opportunity to piss away thousands of my dollars getting a degree in philosophy, and doing blow job shots at the club.
College has to be the first big thing they take seriously. It is a stepping stone to achieving the goals they have set up for themselves. College is the first time they learn to be responsible for themselves. By paying the bill we take that away from them.
We want everything to be easy, and somehow a generation of parents has turned the idea of love into making children’s lives so easy that they do not have to take the reigns of their life until they are damn near 30 years old. If there is no struggle then there is no appreciation.
I want my children to go confidently into the world. I want them to know they that don’t need me, because thy are fully capable of making it out there. Me paying their bills is not the best way to accomplish that goal.
We spend the last year of high school applying to colleges, but learning no life skills. These kids have no idea how to budget, how to pay a bill, what the cost of groceries are. They have spent all their money on cell phone accessories, and body lotion.
They aren’t learning it in college either. Mommy and Daddy hand off a credit card, pay living expenses, and send cash for emergencies. The problem here is the kid thinks Chinese food after the club with the homies is an emergency.
We are crippling our children.
College is the first time they can take their life and go where they want to. It is the first time they can feel the freedom of what being a grown up really is. Yes it sucks to pay bills, but being able to eat candy bars at 7am is the shit.
My kids will not get to play adult. There is no dress rehearsal. We will spend high school learning about what life after they graduate will really be like. They will have to start saving their cash and learning how to take care of themselves.
I am saving for my kids future, but not for college. I will not share my plans for this savings, because they will totally be googling this blog when they grow up. I need to keep some secrets secret.
They have to start making mistakes on their own dime. The faster that happens the quicker they can learn how to be a real grown up.
We do things backwards with kids. We send them to full days of school at 3, but let them rot in our basements until they are 30.
