If it seems that they no longer are delighted by anything, it is because they have so much of everything. And let's be honest. High-school homecomings are merely intermediate stops. This train starts in elementary school. Local educators say they watch, slightly aghast, as elementary students are swooped up in limos on their birthdays and whisked off to dine on pizza with friends.
Flowers arrive for junior high students, and huge bouquets of balloons for first-graders.
By high school, SUVs line school parking lots, and European vacations are just part of being a kid. Premature affluence We love our children. We want to reward them, treat them, make them feel good. We can afford it. These things are just between them and us, we say.