How do I make sure my privileged kid doesn't grow up spoiled?
When I was growing up, my parents never had a lot of money. We never went on vacation, our apartment was very small (I slept in my parents' bedroom until I was 6 because it was a one-bedroom apartment and they couldn't afford to move sooner), and both of my parents worked manual minimum-wage jobs.
My parents still did a great job, and we never went hungry or anything, but we very clearly had less than most of my friends.
Education was incredibly important to my parents, so all of their kids ended up getting master's degrees or even PhDs.
Now I'm comfortably middle class, probably a bit above that. We have a small but nice house, a big garden, and enough money to go on vacation at least twice a year without it putting a strain on our budget.
My son is 3 and he's a great kid. Compared to my childhood, he's definitely quite privileged, and I genuinely love that for him. But how do I make sure he doesn't turn out spoiled?
While visiting a friend, he was shocked to find out that his friend didn't have a garden with a pool and a jungle gym. Being 3, he just asked him, "Why don't you have that?"
When I explained that every home is different and every family has different things, he seemed genuinely surprised.
And of course he was. All of his friends in our neighborhood have pretty much the same setup because it's a very socioeconomically homogeneous area.
So how do I make sure he doesn't grow up to be a privileged prick?
This is something I genuinely worry about because I would be so disappointed if he grew up without understanding that not everyone has the same opportunities or the same privileges.
Of course, I teach him to respect everyone, but this is really important to me. Does anyone have any insight into what their parents did that helped them understand this? Or, if you're raising kids yourself, what has worked for you?