Do you remember the most expensive gift you bought for your toddler? Maybe it was a dress, a piece of jewellery or some fancy motorised car. One Chinese mother has topped it all, by buying a luxurious S$8.4 million apartment in Manhattan for her toddler.
Kevin Brown, a Senior Vice President at Sotheby's International, specialises in selling New York's most prestigious properties. He said the unnamed woman purchased the flat in preparation for her little girl’s future college life in the Big Apple because her daughter may go to Columbia, NYU, or Harvard. When he enquired about her daughter’s age, he was shocked to discover that her daughter was only two.
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The apartment is at One57, a 90-floor glass skyscraper overlooking Central Park. The building was designed by a Pritzker prize-winning architect and boasts a library with a pool table and 24ft aquarium. It is slated to be the tallest residential building in the city upon completion.
In a country like China where there is vast income inequality, this purchase raised more than just eyebrows and netizens have been weighing in on where the money could have possibly come from. Several comments left on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, suggested that the woman must be related to a corrupt government official.
We were more interested in how such an extravagant gift could shape the character of the child.
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Read on for some thoughts on how extravagant gifts could shape a child's character!
Making decisions
The toddler in question has not even started preschool and her parents have already assumed that she will go to an ivy league University in New York. But what if the daughter's interests lead her elsewhere? With whom does the decision lie in the end - the daughter or her parents?
Over lavish
We all want the best for our children and so we work and save for their futures. Financial security is important but for those fortunate enough to be counted among the privileged, its even more important to instill in children the attitude of gratitude rather than raising them in a culture of entitlement. Lets remind ourselves to instill a sense of gratitude in our children even as we give the best that we can afford.
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Nurture independence
Many children showered with privileges, end up accepting their parents’ plans for them instead of following their own dreams. As a parent you could be bribing your kid into complying with your decision. Even if they go along with your plans, they may later resent the choices made for them. isn't it more important to instill confidence in our children to make and live by their own decisions?
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Knowing right from wrong
The mother may have just been a savvy investor who saw an opportunity for a better yield than any savings plan. Or she could have put her daughter’s name on the title deed to evade paying taxes or to channel income from corruption. Remember that your child learns right from wrong at a young age. Sadly, this child might just end up being part of the vicious cycle of entitlement and corruption that plagues China. For the rest of us, its a reminder to ask ourselves whether we are modelling the best values for our children. They will do as we do and not as we say.