Privilege

Odd thing about that previous post....I never thought of those things as "privilege." I just thought of them as a normal part of life. Well, the ones that applied to me, at least. Private schools would be part of a privileged lifestyle...as would cruises and having your own credit card in high school (what a bad idea).

We had an old family friend who was a fairly well-known Texas landscape artist--her work hung in our house (most of what the family had was destroyed in Katrina), as did a good bit of my work (some of that went in the 10 feet of water, as well :( ). My grandfather's art was also up, and some original Japanese prints and watercolors. We didn't think anything about it...it just was. They didn't specify what sort of camp...does girl scout camp count? Or YMCA camp, cuz you have to have somewhere to stick your kid while you work? And where else do you stay, but hotels (or motels) when you're on vacation? The Y? Flophouses? Although I guess they might mean like staying in a really nice hotel for a week or more...in which case, never mind.

And as for reading to your kids...isn't that what you're supposed to do? Isn't that part of being a parent? To me, that's not privilege, that's an obligation, and people who don't do it are failing their kids...but then that's why so many of them can't (or won't) read, I guess. It just wasn't an option I ever thought about...in fact I beat myself up constantly for not reading MORE to my kids.

I never thought of my self as part of the "privileged" class...just upper-middle class.