{"id":5977,"date":"2023-02-28T15:21:22","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T21:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/?p=5977"},"modified":"2023-02-28T11:24:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T17:24:39","slug":"the-perils-of-being-paid-8000-a-month-by-your-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/28\/the-perils-of-being-paid-8000-a-month-by-your-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"The Perils of Being Paid $8000 a Month (By Your Parents)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a big believer in mental health awareness, and part of that is being vulnerable and open about your struggles. So I\u2019m not afraid to share that I, a jobless third year who gets paid $8000 a month by my parents and also uses their credit cards, have my financial struggles just like everyone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut, Thuddeus,\u201d you say, \u201c$8500 a month is a lot of money. That\u2019s enough to buy, like, 850 bananas.\u201d I acknowledge my privilege and I\u2019m aware that some other people at UChicago don\u2019t get allowances nearly as big as mine. Hell, one of my friends doesn\u2019t even get an allowance at all, just annual deposits from his trust fund and dividends from the stock portfolio his parents bought him. He\u2019s practically impoverished.<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, despite my privilege, I too struggle with finances. One consequence of my $9500 a month allowance is that I suffer from class-based discrimination. Last quarter, I applied for aid from the bursar\u2019s emergency fund to subsidize my new yacht purchase. Much to my chagrin, the school told me that I \u201cdon\u2019t qualify for need-based aid\u201d and that wanting a new yacht \u201cdoes not constitute an emergency\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another time, I was having dinner with some of my friends on financial aid at Nobu, and they expected me to pay the bill. I feel lost, friendless, taken advantage of. Nowadays, whenever I go out with other people, I make sure to pick friends whose parents make at least seven figures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, my allowance has made me question my bond with my family. My brother, Chuddeus, got blackout drunk the other night and told me that our parents actually pay him in Shetland ponies and genuine Mona Lisas (he doesn’t know how they found so many).\u00a0 Knowing this, I can\u2019t help but question my relationship with them: do my parents just not love me enough? Wouldn\u2019t they give me more if they did? The fact that my allowance is only $10000 has made me feel deeply insecure about my family relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not writing this to ask for pity, but I want people to know that I have my struggles too. So if you ever meet someone who\u2019s struggling with money because their parents only pay them $15000 a month, have some compassion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBut, Thuddeus,\u201d you say, \u201c$8500 a month is a lot of money. That\u2019s enough to buy, like, 850 bananas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":902,"featured_media":5979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5980,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5977\/revisions\/5980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}