Money or Happiness

Can money buy you happiness? The general belief is that the rich tend to pamper their children by buying them all sorts of “toys”, while the poorer children do not do this because they cannot afford to. It is usually presented in stories- especially in movies - that rich children are bad while those from poorer families struggle all their lives. Consequently it may be believed that children from rich families are happier than those from poorer ones. This may be the case in some instances, but is definitely not always true. Children can be happy whether they are from rich or poor families. We hear of cases where poor families make all sorts of sacrifices so that their children – or one of them – can have a certain comfort. Fathers are known to work at extra jobs so that their children can have expensive toys for Christmas or for their birthdays. On the other hand, the children of the rich are not always given everything they want. Rich fathers are known to make their children work for a living and earn their pocket money. Other fathers have refused to give their children expensive toys so that they will learn the value of hard work. Hence it is not the riches of the parents that can make the children happy but what the parents do to the child. Happiness can never be equated with having money or having rich parents for that matter. It is possible that poor parents have a close relationship with their child. In this way the child has something far better; it has love. Having enough love, the child will be happy – at least much happier than if it did not receive love. On the other hand it is possible that the child of rich parents have everything she wants but does not get the love and concern that she needs. The parents of rich children are sometimes too busy spending their money and earning more. Often we hear stories of “poor little rich children”. Though many of the stories we hear are fiction, some of them are real indeed. Sometimes the parents of rich