TOW #10 - Why Affluent Parents Put So Much Pressure on Their Kids

To many children who have affluent parents, the force behind them telling them to succeed can overcome them. A constant pressure to be perfect, to build an amazing resume, to get into what seems to be a smaller pool of colleges and universities can cause all sorts of issues for these kids. Many develop mental health disorders due to all of the stress, and some even turn to suicide. Why Affluent Parents Put So Much Pressure on Their Kids, written by Rebecca Rosen, a business writer who understands the high pressure environment pushed on to their kids, examines why this is the case. In her piece, Rosen uses paradoxes and logical reasoning to show why rich kids are faced with such intense stress. Rosen starts her piece by saying: "With financial success ought to come some measure of relief..." (para 1), and then spends the rest of the essay disproving this. She introduces the piece with a paradox to address the misconception that many affluent kids have an easy life. Rosen also uses logical reasoning to show why these kids are stressed. If you’re a doctor, lawyer, or MBA—you can’t pass those on to your kids." (Para 5). This shows why many kids have to work so hard in high school, so that they can maintain the way of life their parents had. It also shows the limits of wealth in helping kids succeed, as it can only do so much and kids have to contribute a great deal to their own success. This essay is successful, as it educates the reader about the pain that affluence afflicts on students. As a child of two JDs, I find this piece hard hitting, it could not be more right. I never have to worry about my material possessions at the moment, but the stress from all of the work I need to do to keep this way of life is incredibly taxing.