AV Club / Warner Bros
Spoiler alert: if you’ve never witnessed a case of ‘rich kid syndrome’ firsthand then chances are you’re that person living in a bubble, and that’s fine. Growing up with considerable means and living in a blessed financial bubble is all fine and dandy just as long as you correct those everyday mistakes caused by wealth in your life as you get older. For instance, if you treat your cars like shit, break them, and your parents keep buying you new cars instead of teaching you a lesson then you’re probably just an asshole. A normal human being would learn from their mistakes and treat their possessions with proper care….Not the people below.
I went to private school for H.S. and started college at SMU in Dallas before transferring sophomore year back to my home state and graduating from FSU, so I’ve seen a shit ton of this ‘rich kid syndrome’ firsthand and can tell you that it’s very, very real. Sometimes hilarious, other times utterly confusing. These people below shared stories of times they’ve witnessed ‘rich kid syndrome’ firsthand, and it’s astonishing to see how blissfully unaware some people are of the world around them (via AskReddit):
AndTheDrumsGoOn:
Our fraternity did a pledge event in which we were placed in a limo.
Normal Friend: “Wow, this is awesome! I’ve never been in a limo before!”
Rich Kid Syndrome Friend: “Haven’t you ever been to the airport??”
NordyNed:
A kid in my graduating high school class was very wealthy. His parents bought him a Land Rover when he was 16 and he crashed it into a school bus. They bought him another Land Rover and he lost it street racing. He crashed it street racing, not betting it. Guess what? They bought him a Mercedes.
frostyaznguy:
My suite mate freshman year of college would pay me, my roommate and his roommate to his chores for him every couple of weeks. He literally gave me $20 for making his bed.
owbro:
Dude would stand in a club and rip up bills of 10 euro yelling “this is nothing to me!”. Okay, how about just giving away beer instead of antagonizing anyone in sight.
P0litikz420:
Once when I was at a camp, me and a few other kids were playing a game. Kids from a different part of the camp came over and told us to leave. We replied that we were there first. One of them replied “yeah but does your dad have a helicopter”
DarthRusty:
Worked at Trader Joe’s while going to college (as did a lot of other people working there). One day while stocking the shelves with a co-worker, a father and his daughter were shopping next to my co-worker. I overheard the daughter ask “Daddy, what is she doing?” The father replied “Honey, that’s what happens when you don’t go to college.” My co-worker cried for the rest of her shift. The father was asked to leave. I’m can’t make many assumptions about his wealth but he definitely had the mentality.
Allisade:
I met a kid who didn’t understand the concept of washing dishes.
Wife went back to college. New city, didn’t know anyone. Started a Movie Night thing to meet some people and build a social circle.
We provided a home cooked meal, a fun movies that most people hadn’t seen, and a place to gather – went over great and had 6-12 people showing up each week to hang out and talk and eat our food. Generally good people, because she was going back to college – a lot of college kids came. All good.
I knew this one guy was from a rich family, his first night there he’s bragging to everyone who’ll listen about this 30k+ truck his parents just bought him and telling everybody how awesome he is.
After everything is done we’re collecting dishes in the kitchen and he walks over and following me to the kitchen he walks in and puts his dish and silverware in the trash can.
“Hey man, what are you doing?” I’m assuming he brain blanked for a second, no big deal.
“What?”
“Give me the dishes, don’t throw em out.” It’s a ceramic plate, not a paper one…
“Why?” He asks, obviously confused.
“… I’m going to wash it.”
“Why?” He repeats.
…Now I’m confused. “So it’ll be clean for next time?”
“Oh! Like the dining hall. Oh. Ok. Sure.”
I find out later he basically lives off take out, restaurants, etc – he’s never cooked anything in his life, his family has servants who clean up after meals and …. and he just assumed dishes were something you threw out when you were done. College was the first place where he even saw the idea of putting dishes somewhere other than the trash (or leaving them on the table) afterward.
He wasn’t a bad guy honestly, just… I was amazed something so incredibly basic had slipped by him for years.
SalemScout:
I went to a private school for high school, so we had a lot of those “crashed one fancy car and daddy bought them a new one” kind of stories floating around. But I didn’t know any of them personally.
Then I went to a private college. Suddenly most of my classmates seemed to be these people. The worst by far was this guy my roommate dated for a while:
Had a really nice car but had no idea how to take care of it. When it started to have trouble, he dropped it in front of a friend’s house and had his parents buy him a new one.
Spilled a drink all over someone’s computer and when they got upset, he laughed and told them they could just get a new one.
Told several professors that he “paid for an A so he damn well better get it.” (In poetry class, WTF dude, that was the easiest A ever.)
Didn’t understand why my roommate went home for a weekend to help her dad after surgery. He asked her why she didn’t “have people for that.”
Threw away his text books when he was done with them. (I dug through his trash with his roommate and we split the haul even-stevens.)
And so, so much more. He didn’t last long as my roommate’s boyfriend nor as anyone’s friend. I don’t think he ever graduated. Weirdly, he had a twin sister who was very sweet and down to earth, so I have no idea how that happened.
elsani:
Was a RA in college.
One of my residents was a rich freshman from Rhode Island. He lives on an island and takes a ferry into town.
Anyways, his first week, he asked if there was fresh water available in the shower. I didn’t understand what he meant, but apparently he didn’t like showering with city water and didn’t realize it was everywhere he went. I was so shocked and didn’t know what to say that I suggested he used water bottles to clean him. Yeah, he didn’t last long.
MG87:
I went to a private catholic high school, so you had alot of spoiled rich kids.
My first car was a 1994 Toyota Four Runner that mom had gotten at a police auction. It was raised, had a pretty good sound system and eventually the Antenna broke off so I stuck a cost hanger in there.
This car was “ghetto as fuck” and all my friends loved it, Mostly because I was one of the first people on my class who could drive.
Anyway my friend’s girlfriend at the time, was spoiled as fuck and she was given a Mercedes Benz S -class as a birthday gift. She constantly talked shit about my car and talked about how much better her Benz was and how she “would never be caught dead” in a Toyota. I just her to enjoy it while she could, because she was going to wreck her car and “Daddy” wasn’t going to buy another one. Fast forward to that fateful day when she did crash her car a few miles away from school. I recognized her car so I stopped to ask if she was OK, she was fine. I told her “I would offer you a ride home but YOU WOULDNT BE CAUGHT DEAD in my car now would you?”
WE88Y:
Used to work in an electrical store in a university town in the UK. Once had a family come in shopping for computer goods for the girl to go to university with. She was wearing a big red hat (the kind you would wear to horse racing) which I thought was pretty ‘look at me with my big red hat’. ANYWAY she kicked off because her ‘Daddy’ would only buy her a MacBook Pro & iMac 21″ for her university room and not the 27″ version – She started crying and suggesting she will fail her degree until Daddy gave in and bought the 27″ iMAC.
Spoilt.
sombodyprobably:
Girl in my highschool physics class offering her brand new iPhone to be destroyed in an experiment because “my dad will just buy me a new one”. She had it for like 1 week.
My_Body_The_MysteryL
My friend was Chinese Canadian. She worked as an English tutor for the Chinese Uni students. Her role was to teach them functional English, help their pronunciation and work with them on essays etc. What ended up happening was her teaching these students life skills (eg. how to use a washing machine, how to grocery shop etc.) She had to call one family because they were sending the 19 year old kid US $25,000 a month for living expenses. This was back when a student apartment was like $600 a month on average (90’s.) She explained to the parents that the amount was excessive. The parents chuckled about it but didn’t stop. hehe
CromulentCombine:
I volunteer for Burning Man, which happens to attract some of the worst trustafarians I have ever seen. People who claim to live bohemian lifestyles of art and magic, that also have unending parental support for their magical globetrotting adventure.
It’s frustrating, because these people live in the most sheltered bubble of all. I can’t even begin to describe how infuriating it is to deal with folks who can drop $50,000 on a week at a festival.
SpartanSaiyan:
Back in middle school when flip phones/razors were in , a friend asked to use my phone to call his parents cause his died. I hesitated but then I handed him my Nokia block phone. He looked at it and was like “what the hell is that?” laughed and walked away. What a dick.
justacuriousguy123:
Classmate at university was from Qatar. Family owned large shares in a bank and was generally very deeply involved with the financial world in the Middle East. Needless to say they were disgustingly filthy rich.
First day on campus we all decide to play soccer so he goes to his room to change. When we come back from playing we all go back to his room and when we walk in his clothes were still exactly where he threw them on the floor. He lost his shit at the idea that nobody would clean his room for him and that he had to do his own laundry.
He ended up going shopping every 2-3 weeks for really nice and expensive clothes and would throw them out after wearing them a few times because he didn’t want to do laundry. I’m talking about a Brooks Brothers button down shirt worth over $100 only being worn once or twice before ending up in the trash.
Primitive_Teabagger:
I used to work at a wholesale kitchen appliance distributor. It was a multi-million dollar company. The CEO’s daughter was my age (23 at the time) and would often come shoot the shit with us in sales. She had a highrise condo by herself downtown, worth about $300,000. After I left, I bumped into one of my old coworkers and she came up in our conversation. I asked how she was doing, and my coworker informed me that daddy bought her another highrise condo, which was directly across from her current condo, and the only other condo on that floor. Why did she get 2 highrise condos? Well, she wanted the floor to herself. I kinda felt sorry for her because she was an only child and didn’t have many friends. She’d also never had a boyfriend in her life. She confided this in me when we were talking alone one time, and said all the guys she tries to date are intimidated by her family’s wealth. Looking back now, I think she might have been coming onto me. I still regret not asking her out…
genyul:
I was at a club with a very rich friend of a friend, who wanted to show off and impress the LAAAAAAAADIES and he poured some super expensive champagne on the floor and was like “WHATS MONEY EEEEH”
I would have told him hes a fucking idiot and should rethink his life then and there, but I saved that for after he picked up the tab that night (he was overall a very unpleasant guy)
HarrysonTubman:
Not me, but my scuba instructor told this story.
Some rich family paid him a few thousand dollars to fly down and give private scuba lessons to them in the Bahamas. In Scuba, you have to demonstrate you can handle all the skills in the pool before they let you in the ocean. During the pool part, they got to the skill of clearing the water out of your mask, which is mildly unpleasant but not painful or even hard. They refused to do it. My instructor said if you can’t clear a mask you can’t be cleared to dive. They spent a few thousand on private Scuba classes, and wasted it all because they refused a pretty simple skill.
Fairly certain I used to know this guy.
DrDisastor:
The trust fund bitch… er baby at my HS who had a brand new loaded Eddie Bauer edition Explorer and claimed he paid for it with his own hard earned money. That was a $45k SUV, no way you paid for that as a 16yo kid with no real job.
His spoiling went on in many ways and through college and beyond. Now he’s a loser who parties like he’s 19 with a job he got through daddy’s connections. He’s in his mid thirties with a failed marriage and no friends. I hate he never had a chance but the guy is a real dick and always has been. I’m sure he will burn all his inheritance and life up, shame to see.
feckinkidleys:
This kind of pales compared to some of these, but I’ll give it a go.
When I was a broke-as-fuck bike messenger, I was dating a woman who was heir to a major restaurant fortune. One evening, she wanted to go to a club downtown, and I said I couldn’t go because I didn’t have any money. She said I should come on anyway so I figured she’s footing the bill.
When we got to the club and it’s time to pay the cover at the door, she pays for herself and starts to walk in. I’m like, “hey–I don’t have any money. I can’t get in.” She comes back out and tells me to just put it on my credit card, but of course I don’t have one. The she tells me she’ll drive me to an ATM. But of course I don’t have a bank account because I’m broke.
I’m standing there in the street with her, trying futilely to explain that I literally do not own any money. She could not grasp the concept. I ended up walking home and she went to the club.
We did not last long.
Last, but not least.
get_MEAN_yall:
I saw a girl absolutely FUMING because the BMW she got as a high school graduation gift wasn’t quite the right color.
I got a Chili’s dinner and a “gratz”.
Well, bros, that wraps up the coverage from my end but if you want to keep on reading these AskReddit stories you can CLICK HERE to see that thread in full!