Choosing a school for a child is often seen as a decision about education, facilities and reputation. But an entrepreneur has raised another concern for parents: the financial gap children may notice when they study alongside wealthier classmates. Jasveer Singh, co-founder and CEO of Knot Dating, warned parents against stretching their finances to send their children to expensive schools if they cannot comfortably afford the lifestyle around them.
He said children may avoid directly telling their parents that they cannot afford certain experiences.
He wrote, “Don’t stretch your finances just to put your child into the most expensive school you can possibly afford. The right school is not necessarily the richest school. “You don’t need to become poorer to feel poor; you only need to change your comparison group. A great school means nothing if your child feels poor every single day. Parents compare schools. Kids compare themselves with other kids. That’s the part parents completely miss,” Singh added. Singh gave the example of a child being picked up in a Maruti while classmates arrive in BMWs.
He said the child may ask their father not to bring the car to the school gate and instead park farther away.
They may compare lunch boxes, shoes, birthday parties, pocket money, school trips, bags, phones and after-school activities. Singh wrote, “Children don’t compare only expensive things. They compare tiny visible signals every day: lunch box, shoes, birthday parties, pocket money, school trips, bags, phones, after-school activities. I don’t like that restaurant, or I already ate. I don’t want to come to the birthday party. He also cautioned against confusing the ability to pay school fees with being able to comfortably manage the wider expenses linked to a wealthy school environment.
Children may start feeling embarrassed about things they had never considered shameful before, according to Singh. Your child doesn’t necessarily say – My parents can’t afford this, He says I don’t want to go.
