September 22

Is Time More Valuable Than Money?

time-vs-money-when-to-trade-down-i-will-teach-you-to-be-rich-300x225If you ask my 7th graders that question, you will more than likely get the reply, “YES”!

Last week I gave my students a writing assignment.  It was one of those “Would you rather…” topics that I enjoy giving because I love to read how each student responds.  Last week’s topic was “Would you rather have parents who are rich and buy you everything you want, but don’t spend much time with you OR have parents who don’t have much money to buy you things, but spend a lot of time with you?”  The response?  Of the 70 students who responded to my poll question, 70% said that they would rather have TIME spent with their parents than the material things that money can buy!

Here are some comments from their responses that I thought were noteworthy:

“I also think that if my parents spent a lot of time with me, I would not really have much time to think about what I don’t have, and I would rather have an experience than a tangible item.”

“It doesn’t matter if your parents are rich or not. It matters how much time your parents are willing to give up for you.”

“I mean having parents that can spend time with you is a lot better than having parents that don’t spend a lot of time with you.”

“Having a lot of money would be nice, but money can’t love me, or spend time with me.”

“One reason I feel this way is I want to have good memories with my family by spending time together and having fun.”

“Bottom line. I don’t need 50 million dollars, tons of toys or a mansion. I NEED MY MOM. (Sorry Dad).”

Of course, not all students agreed.  There were some students (30%) who felt that they would rather have rich parents and they gave some very practical points in supporting their opinion:

“My parents always complain about how they want to win the lottery, so if we were rich they would not complain.”

“Another reason is you could have a maid and you would never have to clean anything up again.”

“I would rather have rich parents because I would not get grounded as much because they would not be around to ground me as much.”

As a parent, I find their responses eye-opening.  Even when it seems like our children are always asking for something, it doesn’t seem to be what is really important to them.  We really don’t need to buy our kids much—just spend some quality time with them.  They really just want US. Not sure what to do?  Click on this link to give you some ideas!

What do you think?  Do you agree with the 70% of my students who want to spend time with their parents?  Feel free to comment and share your opinion!

Image fromhttp://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/

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Posted September 22, 2014 by Mrs. Caudill in category misc.

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