Money can be a blessing and a curse. Especially if you didn’t have to work hard and just happen to have it.

According to clinical psychologist Dr. Tian Dayton, children of wealth often begin life with prescribed identities and a sense of social and financial superiority.

The absence of struggle and adversity can hinder their development of resilience and empathy, leading to a distorted worldview where entitlement replaces gratitude.

Interested in real-life examples of this, Reddit user ThrowRAmagicia posted a question on the platform, asking people to describe the worst cases of “rich kid syndrome” they had ever seen. Here are some of the most memorable replies.

#1

Me: You can’t park here, it’s a handicapped space!

Them: That just means it costs $250 to park here

And that’s when I realized fines should scale to income

Image credits: BlindOnARocketcycle

#2

Worked at a mine in Northern Canada. Owners delayed the cargo boat for 5 days, at millions of dollars in penalties, so that they and their friends could come and watch it come in. Disrupted everyone’s leave because of it. When they finally got there, they decided to get drunk and missed the boat coming in. So millions of dollars down the drain, disrupting everyone’s family life, just to act like morons and miss it.

Image credits: Desalvo23

#3

Encountered a bunch over the years directly and second hand, but the most recent one that sticks out was from a friend who’s a drum teacher at a fancy private school. He’s not technically employed by the school, so he bills the parents directly. Went to check his account and found a few more 0s than there should be in his teaching account. Turned out he’d accidentally billed one set of parents 40’000 instead of 400 and they just paid it anyway.

Image credits: Seruvius

#4

When the heir to a fortune threw a fit because his personal chef was on vacation and they had to settle for a takeout order

Image credits: Stockilytake

#5

I worked at an upmarket boarding school for a while, living in the girls dormitory as a dorm matron. One of the girls was (we suspected) the daughter of a Russian oligarch and was obscenely wealthy and badly behaved.

One of the biggest social events of the school year was a winter ball, and the girls had their dresses planned months in advance. The oligarch’s daughter had a designer gold dress that she told everyone who would listen about how it cost 6k. Bear in mind she was just barely 14.

Anyway a couple weeks before the ball she did something truly heinous, and I ended up grounding her from attending the ball. Oh boy, the tantrums and attempted manipulations the next two weeks were absolutely bonkers, but I’m not budging.

She ended up cutting the dress into ribbons and throwing it in the dumpster in order to “punish me”. Unfortunately for her I’m not her real mum and didn’t pay for it so I didn’t care.

Image credits: lil_poundcake

#6

Saw a post about a kid who was angry because his parents bought him a new high end BMW instead of a Mercedes. He intentionally wrecked the BMW.

Image credits: Coyote3855

#7

Barbie and her daughter. I worked at a bank and a young girl came Into the bank complaining her credit card wasn’t working. I told her it was maxed out and she needed to make a payment. The absolute look of shock and confusion on her face… you can tell she had absolutely no idea what the f**k we were talking about. “What do you mean a payment?? This is my money! I go shopping and put it all on this card what am I supposed to do? You need to figure this out!” When I tried to explain that credit cards aren’t free money she said I was a liar and to figure it out cause I’m obviously new here. The manager gets Involved and she’s so pissed she calls her mom… Barbie to come in. She literally looked like Barbie and that was also her name. SAME ISSUE! had no idea what we were talking about. Cards just pay for things! She has never paid a bill in her life. Hers has always worked… I explained that her card was set up that her husband would automatically pay it in full each month and she didn’t understand. Long story short finally the husband comes and tells them to go to the car. Asked me to make it so all the daughters bills come out of his account. Worst part is she came back in and gave me this “see told you you’re an idiot” look. The bill was f*****g wild too… She got this card a month ago and put over 10k on it. The wifes card was so outrageous I wouldn’t even believe anyone could support that. What I dont get is how neither lady even understood the concept of money… It was just “I get whatever I want and this card does it”

Image credits: MiraJane96

#8

Ex friend of my wife, daughter of fairly wealthy business owner. This girl threw a hissy fit at a friendly gathering, complaining about how her father (CEO) had given her (VP of operations-honorary title) a $200K yearly bonus… after she had already prepared her taxes. She was now going to have to go back to her accountant.

Image credits: Sea_Ganache620

#9

I saw a kid who threw out his clothes after he wore them. He legit didn’t understand the concept of washing clothes. When he came to college he had a copy of his parents Amex platinum card. He would literally stop by a store after school and buy clothes for the next few days.

Image credits: johnnyglass

#10

Said “eat the Rich!” unironically than drove away in their new Bugatti to go back to their family mansion

Image credits: Beloved_Fir_44

#11

I had a roommate in Uni who threw her change away. Anything under 5£ would go straight to the bin.

I put a “change drawer” in the hallway outside her room, and we threw an end of year party with the funds. One can hope it taught her that even coins have value, too, but I doubt she changed her ways entirely.

Image credits: listenspace

#12

They weren’t even rich-rich, just upper middle class. They each received $50 gift cards from their grandparents to The Gap one year for Christmas. Only “they wouldn’t be caught DEAD in Gap clothing!” So they threw the gift cards out. 

Image credits: AmandaExpress

#13

My ex girlfriend. She was born rich. Old money in the family. She *mostly* was a normal human. But her older brother had some interesting takes on life. He would get very exasperated with peasant concepts. I remember him saying “Why would anyone ever buy something if it’s not the best?!” when shopping for a new jet-ski. He literally couldn’t understand what would make someone buy a not-quite-best product in any category.

Image credits: limbodog

#14

Me and a buddy were in our PC tech class senior year talking about how cool it would be to get Alienware gaming laptops. A junior that had class with us piped up and unironically said “why don’t you just tell your dad’s so they’ll buy them for you”. We had to explain that our dad’s couldn’t afford to do that and he truly didn’t understand. Apparently his father is a chemist and helped invent the main component in luminol that makes blood glow.

Image credits: LordNorros

#15

I worked for billionaires a few years ago as a nanny. I sat in for story time @ the kids private school. We were reading a children’s book about African students who go to school in mud huts. Basically, we learned that the kids need to work together to rebuild the school after every rainy season because the mud hut washes away… or something like that.

The teacher asked if any of the kids had questions after we finished the book. The first question was “is this about public schools?” The children were 8 years old.

Image credits: megsomatosis

#16

Guy in my family was doomed from the start. His grandpa left him a 200k trust just for being the first born and before you know it, he’s got an unwarranted sense of self importance. Went on to squander that 200k because he refuses to do an honest day’s work, preferring the impossible dream of becoming a CEO immediately and having millions at his disposal. Despite having an MB in business management, he’s run 6 endeavors into the ground to avoid getting a job while conning his parents into enabling him.

Now he’s 50 and has no prospects. But still refuses to just work. Every time I feel sad about not having enough income to realistically retire, I remind myself I could always be him, 50 years old with a 30 year gap on my resume. At least I’m TRYING.

Image credits: SuspiciousBowlOfSoup

#17

Kid had a ‘laptop smashing party’ at my old college, so his parents would be forced to buy him a new one.

Image credits: PokketMowse

#18

When I was at university I was friendly with a guy who lived on my floor who was from a rich family, like his family had villas in Spain and Italy as well as a big house in the countryside in the UK.

He was actually quite a nice bloke, but he regularly came out with things that only a rich kid could say.

He once tried to be relatable by mentioning how annoying it was when you didn’t realize your cleaner or gardener were in the house and how awkward it was.

Like, brother, most people just clean their own homes.

As I said, he was quite a nice bloke, he wasn’t being malicious but he was just so sheltered from what the average person has to go through.

Image credits: killerkebab1499

#19

My old job did this event in Minnesota, where all accountants had to attend to learn about the company’s culture and stuff. So we were all sitting down into tables, and they decided to do a workshop exercise where they scattered all accountants into random groups, and gave us these cards with questions we had to answer; as a fun exercise.

Everything was fine up until one girl pulled out the question, “What was the worst thing you have experienced, and how did you handle it?” So accountants at the table were going in turns to talk about different things, passings of parents/spouses, addiction, sickness, divorces…..etc, and I kid you not, this 21 year old Kyle said this when it was his turn, “Yeah my dad is a pilot and my mom is a surgeon and I’m a lonely child. So on my birthday, I usually travel the world, and one time, when I were in Japan, I tried Kobe Beef for the first time, and it was amazing. When I went back to the US, I had an argument with a restaurant owner because they were also serving kobe beef but I knew he was scamming the customers because actual Kobe Beef is not legitimate unless they are prepared in Japan. They kicked me out of the restaurant and I was never kicked out from anywhere.”

Everyone was quite and speechless, and one lady said she is not in the mood to continue the game after he was done lol.

Image credits: Itward_

#20

It happened recently with another adult at the charity organisation I work at. It’s a charity organisation so the money is s**t. That means either you’re in poverty or you have a rich partner/parents usually.

I was talking to a colleague who is also from another country and told her I wasn’t going home for Christmas. A flight to my home country for Christmas would’ve been like $1500usd. Just too much for me to spend right now. First Christmas without my family. My colleague was confused and asked why my family didn’t all just fly out here then lol

Image credits: bigdreams_littledick

#21

Not sure if this fits this question entirely (maybe more so just entitled here but still want to share) — We are currently on vacation in Mazunte, Mexico and one of the nights we went out to dinner, a huge American family came in from Michigan and just started being obnoxious. They were so loud, rude to the waitress, and just annoying — the grandparents (or maybe parents) were basically fighting the whole time, so it just helps paint a good picture of what was going on in a tiny restaurant and their party of about 17. One of the younger girls (maybe mid to late twenties) was just saying the craziest s**t the whole dinner. One of which included her stating that anytime she goes out with family (and they are paying) that she makes sure to order the most expensive things on the menu. Fast forward to her needing the bathroom — we had seen someone else go and we knew you needed a key and the bathroom was around the corner, I tried telling her but she either didn’t hear me — or chose to ignore me — she got up— kind of poked around a little bit and then opened a random closet. We saw her disappear into it and we through for SURE she would come out quickly because we knew she would have to realize quickly that she wasn’t in the bathroom. Unfortunately not the case — this girl stayed in there for a good amount of time — made some loud noises falling over miscellaneous metal material / typical shed things and came out a bit later. She came out unfazed. When another member of her party quickly asked where the bathroom was — she clearly stated you needed a key and told them it was around the corner. At this moment we were pretty sure she used the bathroom in this shed.

The audacity of this girl. She knew exactly where the bathroom was and just completely disrespected and intentionally disregarded using the actual restroom knowing where it actually was.

We quickly ate our meal and got up to leave, but I we just needed confirmation that what we thought happened happened — so I went into the shed and sure enough — she went to the bathroom on the floor. We were just in shock — I came out and just stared at her. She wouldn’t even look our way.

We couldn’t believe it. Can’t even imagine what type of person would do something like that as a visitor to another country while she knew she did something terrible and wasn’t bothered a bit.

We informed the owner as we paid and pointed her out in front of the entire restaurant and her whole family.

Literally insane.

#22

A girl I went to high school with once was making fun of people who wore Areopostale because she only shopped at American Eagle or nicer. Pretty sure she drove a Mercedes in HIGH SCHOOL. Where I live there’s a mix of people. Not just rich or poor.

Image credits: Lindsey_NC

#23

I had a dude I worked with that said he was mad at his dad because of he took 50k from his trust to go to Vegas for the weekend his dad would stop paying his rent. I was making 15 an hour and living paycheck to pay check. He used to also pull a few grand out and go to the strip club and give it to people who went with him. Then he would get hammered in 30 mins and leave, leaving the money with the people he went with, who would leave with his money. I was super jealous of him and his ability to spend money while I came from a poor family. In hindsight his life had to have been miserable, all of his friends were only his friends for money, he was constantly trying to show off his money, and used prostitutes constantly. He had to have been so lonely for relationships.

Image credits: Danobing

#24

From my personal experience – I went to a HS that had a fairly large amount of rich kids. I remember this one kid, pretty sure his name was Chase, and he was just ranting and raving in class because he could get any car he wanted except a Maybach and some other high end vehicle. I just remember thinking how f*****g stupid he sounded, as someone who was lucky enough to be given a 15yo car because someone passed away (I didn’t know the someone) and the person who inherited the car just wanted to give it away.

That school had so many spoiled rich morons who cried about how hard their lives were while being general teenage a******s. It was kinda startling after coming from a HS in a poorer district where kids were just… normal kids. Idk.

Image credits: shoresandsmores

#25

I used to be a busser at a high end restaurant. I’m talking one of the top 5 most expensive in my state.

Most customers were rich, but most were nice.

I remember this one kid, who was a prick.
Whilst I was carrying a stack of plates from another table, the kid asks me to take his empty soda glass.

Whilst taking the glass, I drop all of the heavy plates. Kid and his whole family start laughing at me whilst I go get a broom.

Please don’t be an a*****e st restaurants ?

Image credits: audreytheredhead

#26

My cousin married into a rich family.

At one point he was saving up for his dream car and his sister in law had bought an expensive one but gave it to him for free and bought another because the one she bought was the wrong colour.

My cousin drove it whilst waiting to save up for the one he wanted.

Image credits: KermitTheFraud92

#27

I went high-school in a working class neighborhood. Most of the students were middle class, and most of my friends were on the lower end of that scale. One girl I hung out with was smoking hot, but dumb as a post. She started dating a guy from a near-by private school. One night a bunch of us went to Pizza Hut and she brought him along, first time most of us had met him. He had no idea what Pizza Hut was or what they served. We had to explain the place to him and he actually said, “I’ve heard of pizza, never tried it.” Dude was in high-school and never had pizza, Apparently, the only restaurants he had ever been to were high end fine dining places.

Image credits: Deitaphobia

#28

I knew the members of Fallout Boy when they were in highschool through some other bands I was friends with. I remember seeing them at the Metro in Chicago on the first show of a tour they were going on. In the dressing room before the show one of them was bitching about his parents ONLY giving him a $500/week allowance for the tour and how he didn’t think he could survive. 

Image credits: Leftfeet

#29

Once interned in LA with a super wealthy kid from NYC.

This is when Apple Watches first came out and he had one so it was somewhat of a big deal to have said watch. I asked how he liked it one day and he said had never recharged it after it died the first time. He followed by then saying he was literally just wearing it to be fashionable.

Image credits: swoopydog

#30

Not sure if this is worse case… but… actually a rich kid being nice.

In college, there was a Saudi Arabian kid who’s father bought him a new Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV. Paid in full.

I was casual friends with him and his roommate.

His roommate was a year behind him, and just an average dude from the US.

He graduated and is in process of moving back to Saudi Arabia, to work at his father’s company.

He just handed the keys to his roommate and gave him the Jeep, signed the title over to him. The roommate didn’t have a car.

He said his roommate was a good friend to him and wanted to give him a goodbye present.

The roommate drove that Jeep until he couldn’t drive it anymore, many years.

#31

An international student at my university had never been exposed* to even the _idea_ of porn. When he was informed of its existence, he bought three more computer monitors so he could take in as much “content” he’d missed out on as possible while simultaneously doing his homework, gaming, and/or watching (non-porn) movies. He wasn’t even jerking off to it, just immersing himself in the experience.

And the aftermath? None. He absorbed it and continued being the same cheery, respectful, accepting guy. After graduation he returned to his home country and inherited a hazily-defined company worth more money than god.

*He was _horrifically_ sheltered growing up: When asked if his family had a house or apartment, he replied that the closest translation he could find was “compound”, and that he’d only left for weddings and funerals.

#32

I unfortunately knew a guy who would insist that all women were vain harpies that had to be bought into any kind of relationship, or at least be impressed with how much wealth, expensive toys (he liked to take his parents boat out), and consumerist c**p you have. He was convinced any woman he wanted to talk to would only give him the time of day if she thought she might get a lot of value outta him. He was also incredibly bigoted and racist, and painfully loud-mouthed and unconcerned with social norms. He never got a girlfriend as long as I knew him. I wonder why.

ETA: Let me be clear. On at least 2 occasions I was at a fairly big party, with guests including this guy and several women, and he would preach to the whole group, including them, about how materialistic and evil women are. It was surreal to watch

#33

• kid crashed his brand new mustang convertible on a Friday and drove to school in a new one on Monday

#34

Young fellow I know. Brought up playing violin, piano, organ. Had house in the Scottish Borders as well as 2-storey (!) London (!!) flat/condo. Went Cambridge. Completely self-absorbed and unable to empathise with anyone not a literal Earl or Marquess. Calls coaches/buses “prole mobiles” with complete seriousness and a pissy smirk. At least he isn’t shy and enjoys his wealth lol

#35

John F. Kennedy didn’t know the depression was going on while growing up. (could be apocryphal)

“Kennedy later claimed that his only experience of the Great Depression came from what he read in books while attending Harvard University. For John, this privileged childhood was interrupted repeatedly by chronic bouts of illness.”

Image credits: randomcanyon

#36

Roomate at unis parents were millionaires. She had the heating on 24/7. Full blast, 24/7. It didn’t have a thermometer like modern ones it’s just on or off on a timer. She regulated the temp by opening her window. She lived on the ground floor so if you turned the heating off she just walked out and turned it on again.

I had to wear tank tops and shorts in my room in winter. Highest temp recorded was 28c in winter when normal is 20-21. Our gas bill (and this was 2010 or so when it was way cheaper) was £2000 for the year for a 2 bed house with a converted living room into a 3 bed. 900sq ft or so. She refused to pay and moved out. I sent her parents the bill and they quite literally paid without question and apologised. Bill was in my name and I had 5k a YEAR to live off. For comparison our rent was £250 a month. So my split of gas alone was HALF my rent. Not including tax or electricity. Just gas. Previous flat I paid about £10 a month in gas.

To make it worse she lived alone there 5 out of the 12 months as the other two roommates went home and her family lived abroad. So per month I was there it was almost as much as my rent.

#37

Living overseas so daughter attends international school. Daughter (8) tells friend she forgot her backpack. Friend says “can’t your nanny just bring it?”.

#38

Not me, but my cousin. She goes to UBC and she said there are so many rich Indian kids there. A guy she was friends with casually gave her a 100 dollar bill as repayment for her buying him food. She stared at him like he was crazy and said she didn’t have the change to give back to him. He told her to take it anyway, since he could always ask his parents for more.

Imagine being so rich you handle 100 dollars bills like they’re nothing special.

#39

Knew a girl who wouldn’t wear the same outfit twice. She would spend thousands a month on designer clothes that she would literally wear for 6 hours then give away. At least she didn’t throw them out! I got some nice clothes out of it! But damn! Really?

#40

Be me: rich kid

In summertime water fight

Introduce *hose*

Fellow rich kid: “I’m not allowed to get wet”

from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/yZNV6c7
via IFTTT source site : boredpanda