I was picking up Ryan from school yesterday.  Nathan was in the car with me because he had just had his wisdom teeth pulled.  He wasn’t doing so well and I was anxious to get going so that we could pick up his pain medication…that still wasn’t ready.  I’m thinking about switching back to Walgreen’s and missing out on the few extra dollars I save at Wal-Mart for prescriptions.  But that’s another story.

As we were inching our way out of the school parking lot, a kid that looked to be about 16 or 17 took his spot in front of me.  I noticed that the car he was driving was brand new; it still had the dealership license plate.  It was a very, very nice car.  I commented on it to the kids.

“Wow.  A brand new Cadillac.  Tell me that wasn’t his Christmas present,” I said, not really expecting that it would have been.  After all, it was a Cadillac.

“Yeah, it is,” they both said simultaneously.

That’s when I enter The Twilight Zone.  I simply cannot imagine a 16 year old getting a brand new car for Christmas, let alone a brand new Cadillac! 

And when I recovered:  “Are you kidding me??!!  He got a brand new caddy?”

“It’s pretty nice,” said Nathan, who drives to school in a used 2002 Toyota Camry that he paid half for.

Help me out here.  I know parents want to be able to buy nice things for their kids.  It makes the parents feel good to give and the kids feel good to receive.  But let’s take a moment to really think about this.  Even if they do have the money, and these parents apparently do, is giving your kid a brand new car a smart move?  What are the kids learning?  That they’ll get everything they want?  That this lifestyle will continue forever?

Don’t get me wrong.  I have no doubt that these kids are nice kids.  And, truthfully, I don’t even know if they need to “pay back” their parents somehow.  My guess is, no, they don’t. In that case, their parents are setting up some pretty high expectations. These kids are going to expect this kind of treatment.  They’re lucky the money is there now, but what about later in life?  Even if the kids do inherit all the money will they know how to effectively manage it?

It also makes me wonder about the real motivation behind the gift.  Is the gift for the kids or for the parents?  Will the kids grow up thinking that money equals love?  Will they grow up surrounded by nice things but feel alone?  Okay, I may be taking this a little too far.  But…maybe not.

As we finally pulled out on to the main road, Nathan said,  “You think that Caddy’s a nice car.  You should see the Mercedes that (Julie) got last year.  It’s a red convertible.”  

Ahhhh….