When Rich Kids Go Bad

[Riprorin]

Fixing Kids Is Billion-Dollar Business

Outsourcing the problem kids of the wealthy is a booming business.

Each year 10,000 kids attend residential programs to get off drugs and deal with emotional and psychological problems. Fixing bad kids is a $2 billion-a-year industry in the private sector, growing enough to attract firms such as Warburg Pincus.

Some 115 such programs are listed by a big trade group, Natsap (National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs); add nonmembers, and some 300 private programs treat kids, up tenfold since 1993, says Lon E. Woodbury of The Woodbury Report, a newsletter.

"Many successful parents have invested more time in their businesses than in their children, contributing to the rapid growth of these programs," says Natsap Executive Director M. L. (Andy) Anderson.

Adds Carol Kauffman, who teaches clinical psychiatry at Harvard Medical School: "We've all gone a little nuts in the past decade with the mirage of fabulous wealth. Children can know how important they are to their family, but if it isn't backed up with consistency of presence, they can feel valued and dismissed, indulged yet deprived."

When Rich Kids Go Bad

 

[gopunk]

when parents fail at their duty

 

[klah]

"but if it isn't backed up with consistency of presence, they can feel valued and dismissed, indulged yet deprived"

So the solution is to spend $200,000 for your kid to go to a wilderness training camp?

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: Riprorin


"Many successful parents have invested more time in their businesses than in their children, contributing to the rapid growth of these programs," says Natsap Executive Director M. L. (Andy) Anderson.

When Rich Kids Go Bad

You dont have to have a successful business to not have time for your kids.

Spoken from expereince.

-PAB

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: gopunk
when parents fail at their duty

Pretty much, but you cant place all blame on them. I went to one of these places for approximately 2 years when I was 15-17. I was lucky enough to escape wilderness beforehand, but that was only because I was in inpatient rehab/juvinile hall for a period of time before I was committed to the place. Total cost for my parents was a little under $100K. I went here. Turned my life around though. Bad period in my life but I'm glad my parents put me through it.