How much better off...

are you than your parents?

I was thinking about this last night. My sons and I were discussing things I used to do as a kid. Specifically they were talking about toys and games. They have currently a Play Station, a Dreamcast and a Nintendo 64, as well as remote controls and various other nice toys.

We go to movies often. We visited most of the amusement parks in the area this summer. Chuck E Cheese gets a lot of my dough (the annoying rat :wink: ) I pretty much get them what they want within reason. Most recently I bought their scouting uniforms.

It was something that never occurred to me before I looked at it from there view. I grew up pretty poor. My Mom raised the six of us practically alone. But I guess I never thought of it that way. We still had fun. But movies and things like I described above were few and far between.

I’m not complaining. My Mom instilled in me the work ethic, which ultimately lead to me having a successful life.
So how about it? Are you/your kids better off than you/your parents were? Worst off?

At the moment I’m worse off than my parents were at my age; by the time my mother was twenty-nine my dad was making enough money that she didn’t have to work. They could well afford the two children they already had.

I have the potential to be much better off than they have ever been, because I’m trained in a career that pays much more than my mother’s nursing degree would, and I married a man with the potential for a six-figure income. As well, we already have a retirement fund set up, and we won’t make the incredibly stupid investment mistakes they made.