I'm curious: Would you say that your children have lived so far with more or less than you had in your youth? (You may quantify that as you choose.) And what factors do you think have contributed to that fact?

[Edited 8/5/13 8:05am]

My children have MUCH more than what I had as a child. The majority of it is that my husband spoils them to the point that I have to be "the baddie" and bring things down to a more reasonable level.

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Example...I came home from work and my husband had bought them each flat screen tv's and dvd players for their rooms.

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One year, my husband, without my knowlege or consent, spent $5000 on them for Christmas.

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These both happened pretty close together. Since then, I have curbed that shit.

I would say both more and less.

More:

Money - My son is an only child and I made more money than my father did when I was growing up. That translate into more new clothes (we shopped at second-hand stores), eating out (McDonald's was a rare treat), better furniture...

Travel - My son and I have had fun vacations and travelled out of state several times. His first plane ride was at age 8; mine was at age 26 - and that was for work! The only vacation I had as a child was a week at Indiana Beach at age 11. That was it.

Culture - I've always taken Adam to see live music, shows, zoos, museums and watched quality television/films with him. I wanted him to be well-rounded in that way.

Time - Naturally, he's had more individual attention and time spent. He was my "podnah" throughout life and I'm blessed that we are as good friends as we are. I believe much of that is because of the time we spent together and at age 28, we still like hanging out.

Less:

Family time - I am a single parent, he is an only child. However, I am the oldest of five kids with both parents growing up. I KNOW Adam missed a lot that I had as a child, having siblings, a mom and dad at home. I'm sorry about that but it is what it is. Plus, he was a latch-key kid from age 8 or 9, as I always had to work. My mom didn't work outside the home 'til I was 15 and the youngest was in school all day. Even then, as a nurse she worked third shift so she could be home with us while we were awake and when we returned from school.

Independence (to a degree) - As life was a little slower and safer in the 70s, I had much more liberty to ride my bike miles from home and only have to be in before the street lights came on. Never had to check in periodically. I've needed Adam to let me know where he was (if I didn't take him there myself) regularly. Especially since I was not home when he was - summers were the worst.

Creativity (to a degree) - Having siblings allow for a lot of games to be made up, forts to build, fights to have and reconcile, stories to laugh about as adults; I had a blast as a child! Adam cracks up at my sibs and me getting together and talking trash. Only children don't have that and I think those are good skills to develop.

our son has had way more than i had growing up, my parents were very poor off and on during my childhood to the point where we were homeless for about 2 years, sleeping in a car, and in motels, under a bridge....

our son has always had a nice place to live, food to eat, toys, went to fun places, etc...

my husband was rich growing up though, his family didn't lose their money until his teenage years, so i'm not sure on his end if he had more or less?

I'm thinking my kids grow up in a time when there was more things to want than I did so pound for pound they had more stuff, but basically I'd say about the same when it all balances out. Granted I was the only child/grandchild with more adults around versus a single parent with 2 kids, so they got everything I did, amusement parks, zoos, trips, theatres and stuff. I had a ton of neighborhood kids to play with, kites, long bike rides that safely ended up in strange places, homemade go-carts, my kids never experienced any of that, they more or less had scheduled recreation time.

more... a lot more

Far more technical and entertainment gizmos, I mean the video games alone are mind boggliing!!

Far too many opportunities to go out and play by themselves from dawn to dusk...

More and Less ~ really how I see it should be !

Different decades, different times, different needs ...

I ( we ) did not try to give them more or less of anything it just naturally worked out that way

uniden said:

our son has had way more than i had growing up, my parents were very poor off and on during my childhood to the point where we were homeless for about 2 years, sleeping in a car, and in motels, under a bridge....

our son has always had a nice place to live, food to eat, toys, went to fun places, etc...

my husband was rich growing up though, his family didn't lose their money until his teenage years, so i'm not sure on his end if he had more or less?

My children had way more than I did growing up. My oldest son was able to see the evolution of us having little to us having more so I think he appreciates things more than his little sister who has had it way better than him. My mother never worked and I have worked all of my children's lives.

More.
Definitely more.