Thursday, September 17, 2009

raised like royalty

Weirdly, we were all raised as if we were not ever going to have to get our hands dirty. I thought it was just my mother, but speaking to one of my kids' godparents the other day, he said to me that he was having trouble starting a new business because he's having trouble charging.
So. He works, but people don't pay him.
I asked him why he couldn't just say "It's going to be this much" and he said exactly what I would say in his situation. "Money is so vulgar!"
It is. It's how we were raised. How does one get through that hurdle? I've given him some advice - things that I think I could muster, given his circumstances -, but I really don't know the right answer nor do I know why we would both feel this way. Is it our parents? Did they never discuss money or, maybe, argue about money so much that we in turn find it infinitely pedestrian?
I don't know. But I don't like it. It impedes my own development. It's very frustrating.

1 comment:

Vanessa said...

Hey. Brought here by Maria.

I have a friend who rents rooms out to seven different people. Really beautiful rooms, that she undercharges for.

Except she doesn't charge. She doesn't ask for a deposit. She never asks for rent. If tenants bring up the issue, she laughs in an embarrassed way, fluffing it away, and pretends not to accept it, while simultaneously being $20,000 USD in debt. the idea of actually mentioning the money people owe her to them is absolutely unsconscionable.