Sagamite:

What are you suggesting? To train your kids they should not stay in the same house or accommodation?

Or you have some info that he gives them some exclusive, spoilt use of the island?

eldee:

I'm not the one trying to write a rulebook on child-rearing. All I've said is that it is daft to praise their restriction to economy-class flights as prudent if we ignore the fact that life on a billionaire's island is not the prudent lifestyle he's advocating.

Access to friends in the royal family/Fortune 500 company dinners, cars, home tuition, extensive travelling . . . and you tell me flying business class makes Adebola feel like he doesn't have to work for anything in life?? I call B.S.

Sagamite:

I know people that pay N800K to send their 4 year old to nursery in Nigeria.

I just thought it was plainly daft!

coogar:

plainly daft?
there's a reason people send their wards to such schools in nigeria. if one can afford it, there's absolutely no problem paying. . . .

coogar:

plainly daft?
there's a reason people send their wards to such schools in nigeria. if one can afford it, there's absolutely no problem paying. . . .

Sagamite:

I am always open to learning.

Please enlighten me by explaining the reasons.

Sagamite:

I am always open to learning.

Please enlighten me by explaining the reasons.

crugs:

No Sagamite, you are not open to learning. you are only open to being right

Sagamite:

You have to apply pragmatism intelligently in any assessment you make.

There are things within his control and things outside his control. Making an attempt at those within is control is reasonable enough.

What are you expecting? Instructions that they should not speak or get to know kids of family friends?

Rent them a house different from the parents' mansion to grow up in?

Going to the holiday home alone and refuse to spend time with the kids as you don't want them in the opulence?

Pragmatism!

Sagamite:

I am always open to learning.

Please enlighten me by explaining the reasons.

eldee:

Pragmatism?? So now we're making excuses for the Bransons??

Parents shape their lives to accommodate the type of lives they wanted me to experience. I'm not saying what they did is the right way to go, I'm just saying it's a reasonable option.
You know what people do when they want their children to experience the lives of a billionaire?? They do not live like billionaires.

If you don't want your children to be friends with Mariah Carey, then you don't bring her to your house on weekends.
If you wanted your children to live the life of the average child, you don't build Virgin Islands.
If you want them to value success from hardwork, don't create trustfunds in their name.
If you want your children to struggle for internships like normal kids . . . well you get the drift by now.

At the end of the day, the life chances these Brits and American billionaires provide for their kids make Bankole look like a joke.

Creating the 'I can't help it' excuse for Branson but telling the Nigerian parent he's committed treason because his kids get a business class flight is just amusing. . . and that's me applying pragmatism in my choice of words.

coogar:

if it's affordable, i will gladly pay 800k per term for my ward in any school in nigeria. besides, the quality education that is guaranteed, money cannot buy the network of friends/class-mates that child will have growing up in life. in such schools, the children of the high and mighty are always present and the best legacy one can give one's child especially in a chaotic country like nigeria is the tools he would need to later succeed in life.
if eduardo saverin had not gone to havard university where he met mark zuckerberg, he won't be sitting on a fortunes worth $2.5 billion today. . . .

eldee:

@Sagamite

N800k for nursery school is what you're crying about?? You do realise that its not uncommon for these billionaires get six-figure nannies??
Google 'Autumn Backman' if you think I'm making this up.

Sagamite:

What makes you conclude in your analysis that the only factor under consideration is "what the child experiences"?

What about what the parents wants?

You ever learnt the thing called "balancing"?

eldee:

I'm not the one trying to write a rulebook on child-rearing. All I've said is that it is daft to praise their restriction to economy-class flights as prudent if we ignore the fact that life on a billionaire's island is not the prudent lifestyle he's advocating.

Access to friends in the royal family/Fortune 500 company dinners, cars, home tuition, extensive travelling . . . and you tell me flying business class makes Adebola feel like he doesn't have to work for anything in life?? I call B.S.

ThiefOfHearts:

You are not serious.

VERY few rich parents DONT spoil their kids, mentioning a few exceptions doesnt change that.

It's not a Naija problem

why are you so concerned anyway?


*continues to eat her butter*

Sagamite:

I will never spend that on a toddler except if there is a case for security reasons.

Wetin them wan teach am for nursery except ABC, to eat cookies, drink milk and poo in a bucket (abi wetin dem they call that child toilet)?

eldee:

Aren't you the one making it the most important factor by calling for the head of the Senator the flies his children in business class??

eldee:

Come on . . .with my crappy knowledge of parenting, I, for one know that most parents try to create a better childhood for their children compared to what they had. Shouldn't that come into your 'balancing' or 'pragmatism' or do you have to find another buzzword for that??

ThiefOfHearts:

The ABCs taught to rich kids carries more weight than that of talikas  

Claus:

Just to clarify, Richard Branson's island is a mini resort that he mainly lets out. It's an income generator. It's very likely that his family get to go on vacations there for free, but they don't live there.

It shouldn't detract from the point that was being made, which is that a number of wealthy men attempt to instill good values in their kids by not over-pampering them.

eldee:

I don't care bout what you consider right or wrong. I care about peoples' rights to raise their kids the way they want without you bringing your perfect guidebook to parenting to scrutinise their decision.

If American parents pay that much to hire multi-lingual nannies to train their kids to have German/Spanish as their 'mother tongue', I think they should have a right to. If Nigerian parents think getting an early start should cost 800k, it's their business.
You have no factual basis to tell me it is detrimental to their growth/life-chances/value-system/success in life.

Sagamite:

Look at these spoilted brat. You thought your ABC is betters than the ones we talikas gotted?

naijababe:

Unfortunately, this issue is beyond money, although a lot of people only think about the financial aspect of it. It's all about how you choose to raise your wards. There are people who will tell you that they don't want their kids to 'suffer' or go through life the hard way like they did and I agree with them to an extent, there's no reason why your children should not enjoy of your good fortune. The real problem is the sense of entitlement that we let the children develop. 'It's my right', 'my daddy can afford it, so i should have it'.

Let's forget about money for a minute, how many parents let their kids clear up after themselves after eating? How many 14 year olds wash daddy's car as part of his chores? Do our children even know that our house helps are human beings too and deserve to be respected?
(I once saw an 8 yr old girl address their house help as if she was the one paying her salary and her mother didn't think anything was wrong with what she did) . What the heck is wrong with getting a part-time job like everyone else if you want to drive a car at 18?

Personally, I will fly business and even 1st class sef if I can afford it. I work too damn hard for my money to not enjoy it and I will send my househelp to Kutuwenji to get me a glass of water too - na my money kill am  . But my kids do not get the same privileges because it's not their money and therefore do not get to enjoy the same privileges as the bill payer. Simples

mydreamz:

who the hell spends 800k on nursery?
What are they learning or teaching there?
And I wonder how much that parent will spend on primary, secondary or university

Sagamite:

Show me where I called for anyone's head or I made it/said it was the most important factor.

What is my balancing and intelligent factor is to provide the kids with the best equipment to be the best human beings they can be.

For some parents, that might require their living words living a better life, for others, it might require the wards living an inferior life.

That is called "thinking outside the box" and not following a herd philosophy. The outside the box shitzo is the buzz word you requested for.

Look at these spoilted brat. You thought your ABC is betters than the ones we talikas gotted?