Monday, April 07, 2008

have a lot of kids? you snob you

This article, Three kids? You show offs. , from the Washington Post is amusing looking at it from the perspective of someone who has a lot of children and doesn't think it necessary to hire baby coaches, a nanny, pay private school tuition, or push junior around in a $800 stroller.

...the desire to have another child opens one up to charges of elitism and status consciousness. In many major U.S. cities and their suburbs -- especially New York, where I live -- having three or more children has now come to seem like an ostentatious display of good fortune, akin to owning a pied-Ã -terre in Paris. The family of five has become "deluxe." Last year, novelist Molly Jong-Fast mused in the New York Observer, "Are people having four or five children just because they can? Because they feel that it shows their wealth and status? In a world where the young rich use their $13,000 Birkin bags as diaper bags, one has to wonder."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh that's really funny!

Anonymous said...

Well, I know most people I knew in russia only had one child because they couldn't afford more... and as a person in the Bay Area (SF that is), I'll tell you that it *is* really hard to have more than the standard one or two kids. Most people have to work two jobs, which is hard with three kids who need coordinating and daycare and stuff. Or, you try to have one income, and support a bunch of people living in a very tiny place.

Soooo.. yea. I can see some people coming form that point of view. But it only makes sense in the very expensive city-type places. ;)

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

Too funny!

I think I'll just give my mom a call and let her know that after all those years of hauling us around and being pitied, she's now chic!