Investing Newbie suggested that I do a regular “Idiot Mondays” series, but I don’t have enough stories aside from when we chat occasionally.
🙁
But it would be a fabulous feature no?
Okay, moving along, I have one sort of short story about his 3-year old kids.
We asked how they were doing (naturally), and he said that they’re just starting to speak little words in Spanish here and there.
Like agua for water, or jugo for juice.
Yep. 3+ years old, and they’re still working on a word here and there, but mostly grunting from the last time I saw them.
(I love baby/toddler grunting!)
However, I was a bit surprised that they weren’t speaking in short 2-word sentences by now at their age.
I also don’t want to be rude and say: “Umm…. shouldn’t your kids be speaking a bit MORE by now?”
Anyhoo….
He said that they’re learning extremely fast, and have already picked up how to turn on the television all by themselves, and use a television remote and to flip to find their favourite shows.
A skill highly praised in children, to be sure.
And he was thinking of enrolling them into pre-school.
At $10,000 a year each.
Wait..
Wait..
Let that sink in.
He wants to pay $20,000 a year (net!!) for pre-school for his 3-year old kids.
Money that he doesn’t have, because he has a huge mortgage, maxed out credit cards, and no income whatsoever coming into the family.
People have been suggesting that perhaps he has a trust fund and comes from a rich family?
And I say it’s possible but highly unlikely.
If he had a trust fund, or money from his parents, he would not have purchased the house he did, nor put down a $15,000 deposit on his $300,000 mortgage.
5%.
But it gets better. It was $15,000 borrowed from a line of credit.
He also bought a new car on a credit card — putting down the down payment for the lease on the card.
Okay, back to the kids.
So he wants to pay $20,000 each year for 3 year old kids to attend pre-school so that they can start learning how to speak in short sentences.
This all coming, while he is attending a MBA refresher course, going on a 2-month vacation to Mexico, not working….
I mean, where do I start?
He chose this particular gem of a private pre-school, by saying that his kids would end up learning 4 languages!
- Classes taught in German and English
- French spoken among the kids who attend
- Spanish spoken at home
Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of languages and soft skills:
I think it’s something a lot of people take for granted, and consider an easy skill to pick up, but not so.
BF says that he is envious of my ability to play the piano, violin and viola.
But I am equally as envious of him being able to speak 4 languages.
I now consider French my second language, and it is NOT simple to twist your head around how to speak in it, especially if you don’t know a third, fourth or fifth language.
Hell of a time.
Kids can pick up languages (and the proper accent) when they’re younger, up to the age of 16 I think.
After that, it becomes a bit of a challenge to get the proper accent (I still can’t say certain “Rs” in French) and just to learn the structure and semantics.
But to purposely look into, and choose the most expensive private school just to pay someone to teach your kids 4 languages is just insanity.
He simply doesn’t have the money or the status of the types of families who put their kids there.
Call me a snobby elitist if you want, but for $20,000 a year in pre-school tuition.. you are sure as hell NOT on the same level of income or social status.
(I sure as heck am not.)
$20,000, net, is not chump change.
It’s a nice dream, but a dream it shall stay.
I think I am starting to have some insights into his character however.
He has probably been taught to aim for the stars, no matter how unrealistic it is.
And that money can pay for everything they need especially since they’re just plain lazy.
Instead of thinking:
Gee, maybe for $20,000 net after taxes…
We should just buy some educational DVDs…
Perhaps some cute pop-up soft books.
And spend all of this free time that we both have (him unemployed & her refusing to work) teaching basics to the kids at home.
Heck, we know 3 languages ourselves!
We could at least teach them the basics in all three.
No, no.
He wants to pay $20,000 a year just to get out of doing any of the prep work as parents and so he can brag that his kids go to so-and-so.
Oh… and because he wants them to learn German so they can speak to each other and he can proudly display them at Toddler Fairs.
I am huge fan of education, but this is too much even for me.
And they just aren’t in the advanced stages of learning yet.
They aren’t exactly learning calculus, science or other subjects that require a lot of concentration and help.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
To be fair, kids in households that have 2 or more languages tend to speak much later then kids in households with only one language. Of course once they start speaking it is usually in all the lnaguages at once.
However 20k preschool on top of all other debt is simply idiotic
It's actually kind of sad, albeit stupid, when people look outside of themselves for approval. All this showboating is just a way of telling other people how much they've made it or maybe to show others how inferior they are.
I still can't wrap my mind around how some people repeatedly make dumb financial decisions without becoming homeless. Where in the heck does the money come from?! Who's crazy enough to keep loaning them money?
I know someone who paid for her granddaughter's first two years of private elementary school only to have her granddaughter leave that school at a lower academic level than her public school peers. The whole time I thought how ridiculous it was to pay for private school when the neighborhood school was "A" rated. I'm convinced people make such irrational decisions to impress other people.
Maybe that’s it. It’s just to impress everyone
But it doesn’t work on us, we are more impressed if they save money, because then we want to learn the secret!!!
We’re also in Canada, and the recession didn’t hit us as bad here. We had no major home foreclosures, or anything to the extent of the States, and his wife has been opening cards under her name (before this year, spotless credit score as all the credit & mortgage was only under his name).
They find ways. Everyone does if they want it badly enough.
I love the idiot posts. 🙂
My son turned 2 in mid September and he isn't speaking much at all yet either. He has developmental delays, of course, but just to give you an idea of what might be going on with these kids?
Also – my cousins didn't speak till they were 5. Seriously. They experienced some pretty horrific things as children though, so I believe that's why they refused to speak. I should rephrase that. They spoke, in a strange guttural grunting to eachother – very sad.
Another example is a friend of mine, his son, didn't speak at ALL till he was like 3 or 4 – but then started speaking like a little adult. Full sentences, proper structure and phrasing, it was crazy.
I'm really surprised that by 3 years old they cannot say more than a few words. In a second language that they're just beginning to learn…fine…but how are they doing in their native language? Unbelievable!
When my oldest was 4 years old other children his age were walking away from him because he was talking over their heads, but even they were talking in complete sentences! We didn't bring him to an expensive private daycare to learn all this…it's called being a parent and teaching them the basics at home.
I love your posts about this guy and his family, but I really hope he gets it together for the kids. He's not doing them any favors!
Spanish is their native language which is what is concerning — they speak in Spanish all the time.
But maybe they’re just quiet kids, like what Rina said….
The same can be said for those how shell out more the $2k a month per child for daycare. That's quite common in this neck of the woods, and I myself was tempted at first.
That’s the thing — it isn’t common here for $2k/month per child. That’s kind of crazy to me! But depending on your area, it could be common.
It’s not like both of them are working. One is a stay at home mom and the other is supposed to be working.
There are good and bad things to either being working parents or SAHPs.
If a parent (mom or dad) can make more money at work than having to pay for childcare, why not? If it was cheaper to stay at home than to shell out $4000 a month, I’d stay at home instead.
But they aren’t working AT ALL and thinking of paying for that, is just ridiculous.
$20,000 for PREschool. Srsly…
I'm just baffled that such a school even exists.
*sigh*
I <3 the idiot, deep down, I don't want him to ever change because these are my favorite posts that you do. =)
My old boss, his wife is from Puerto Rico, so they ONLY speak Spanish in the home. They know their daughter will pick up English in school. So this way she will become fluent in both (or at least that is the hope). Unfortunately, my boss speaks VERY bad Spanish. But it has been good for him to only be able to talk to his wife in front of their daughter in Spanish as well. =)
I figure the kids will learn at least 3 languages.
Spanish at home FOR SURE. English with TV shows (very hard to resist) and movies, and French at school if they go to a French school
I just don’t see the need for German… yet. Unless they want to take that in school later or something.
These posts make my head hurt…I really need to stop hitting my head against the concrete wall when I read these…
Why doesnt he just teach the kids sign language it helps youngster to communicate better with their parents and relives frustration, plus they are able to pick up languages much better and faster too and he can always pay someone to teach it to the whole family for under $100. Plus if he is so willing for his kids to learn a different language then maybe going to a bookstore to find age appropriate language books or even a used bookstore might be even better and teach them himself.
Plus he could use that $20,000 instead to oh say maybe just maybe reduce some of his debt or even invest it into a college fund for his kids.
I read that!! Sign language for kids IS SO COOL
They could sign to you that they want to eat, poop, sleep… gosh even I want to learn it now.
The thing is, is that he already speaks 3 languages and so does she (to some extent). So they could just teach the kids themselves :\
I’m baffled.
Seems to me, he and his wife are not interacting with the children enough. Children learn by modelling and practicing. So when you talk to them and engage them, that's how they learn. At age 3, she should definitely be able to string together complete short sentences. Though to be fair, children can pick up languages (or anything really) if started young. I believe it was before the age of 10 or 12. As their neuropathways and synapses are still forming in the brain, if you introduce them a concept young and stick to it, they'll usually learn it rather quickly. I know a boy who spoke 5 languages and he was only 4 years old. Simply because he was from a multi-racial/multi-cultral family. So they don't really need classes but just exposure like you said.
I feel sorry for the kids. At this rate, they'll be late bloomers in their class at school. And their parents are severly messing up with their potential and life.
That is seriously awesome. 5 languages..
At any rate, I just think talking to them, reading books, interacting and just talking NONSENSE helps kids.
They just want to hear the language and then communicate back.
Or so my brother says. 🙂
I may be wrong here as I don't know how the idiot behaves at home. But I know a few familys in which one (or both) parents speak 2 or more languages and therefore alternate days in which they speak each language (eg, English on Monday, French on Tuesday and so on) Its true that it takes the children longer to speak either language but when they finally wrap their little heads around the two languages they suddenly begin to speak both fluently. Which is a great bonus to not have to learn, but just pick up. Hope your having a good holiday season.
That’s a good idea!!
Maybe I should suggest that to him. It might help them get to their goal without spending $20k/year
How inane! Is he delusional, or just really, really optimistic?