Kids Speak Their Mind About Real Estate

(We now live in a world that is heavily focused on material possessions, and amongst one of the greatest in focus is real estate. )

The American dream now not only just consists of owning a home, but owning the most spectacular home on the block. Our society focuses a great deal on the size and quality of your home, and many people make judgments based upon your living quarters.

This used to be a thing that was specifically reserved for adults to take part in, and children had no interest in real estate, as long as they had a place to play.

But my have times changed. Now it seems as if the smallest children are the ones making the blatantly honest comments about a home, condo or apartment. Kids are more aware than ever before about the nuances of real estate, and are surely not shy about their feelings of their friends' homes.

An October 1, 2006 article by Teri Karush of The New York Times, "The toughest critics are the smallest," looks at how kids are so in tune with real estate and are not afraid to speak their minds.

"Adults are not the only ones who engage in real estate envy and suffer from lust when they see a well-proportioned classic six or a penthouse with wraparound terraces and an elevator that opens directly into the apartment. Children, once assumed to be oblivious to the nuances of real estate, now know what is prized and what is not, and often feel free to comment on what they observe."

"As finely attuned to one another's living spaces as they are to their Game Boys, Treos, iPods and most recent vacation destinations, children have been known to say things like 'You live in this place?' in tones as eerily amiable as a Stepford wife agreeing to conjure up dinner for a dozen in an hour. Indeed, it is often not their peers (who accept the remarks as neutrally as they are delivered) but their friends' parents who are hurt by the commentary on their relative lack of success in the real estate game."

Kids have always been known to speak their mind about what they are feeling, and when it comes to where a person lives, things are no different. In all parts of the country, this could not ring truer than in New York City, especially Manhattan, where kids care more about the amenities of their classmates' apartments than Barney.

This comes at a time when our country is more materialistic than it has ever been. Kids now not only care about the latest toys, gadgets and clothes, but they are just as focused on whether their Upper East Side apartment has a wrap-around terrace.

"Youngsters are particularly apt to ape their parents and society at large, said Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard and the author of 'Stumbling on Happiness' (Knopf, 2006). 'You're bringing children up in the single most materialistic culture that has ever existed on the face of the earth,' he said. 'I don't say this as a judgment. This is clearly the 'Culture of Stuff.' We are molded from our earliest days to be good consumers and keep this country in business."

With all this "stuff" around, it is easy for kids to become envious of the homes of other children and begin to feel inadequate. It is up to parents to teach their children that it is okay to feel feelings of envy sometimes but you can't let them control your everyday life, or make you feel bad about yourself.

We should be teaching our children to be happy with what they have, not always wanting what the other kids have.

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