Shrink Nails It
"Playing with his 7-year-old might be sort of boring, or unsatisfying; his son might not fully express his appreciation, or the child could even be in a bad mood. So this person might find himself terrified of spending time with his child because it’s not an activity he can control or succeed at..." This insight comes from a NY Times article on the problems psychiatrists have with super-rich patients. The good doctor quoted above was trying to describe why a swaggering hedge fund warrior might rather spend his Sunday afternoon working the phones than playing with his kid. Hey, I finally have something in common with America's elite! I also get discouraged by parenting! But apparently it's easier for me to persevere in the face of mediocre results because I'm only an average American and that's what we do best. We realize we're looking at a situation which we can neither succeed at nor control, shrug our shoulders, and dive in anyways.
I also think its so much easier for the super-rich to substitute toys for joys. Why spend mind-numbing hours playing legos with a kid on the floor when you can just buy him a new X-box and he'll leave you alone to make your calls! No lie, a friend of my son's has a dad that lives out of the country three weeks out of every month. That kid has a 42 inch plasma tv in his room with a wii, x-box and playstation.
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