Bad Parenting Produces Poverty

One of the most controversial aspects of my Rich Habits Study was the direct correlation between bad parenting and poverty.

What I discovered in researching the habits of poor people was that bad parenting, irrespective of childhood socioeconomic status, resulted in poverty. In simple English, I found bad parents were far more to blame for poverty as they passed along Poor Habits to their children.

Bad parents come in many varieties:

• Alcoholic parents
• Drug addicted parents
• Incarcerated parents
• Gambling addicted parents
• Abusive parents (physical or mental or both)
• Toxic parents (negative, angry or emotionally out of control parents)
• Combative parents (parents who fight with one another)
• Invisible parents (parents who ignore their children)
• Untrustworthy parents (infidelity)
• Parents with bad habits

Conversely, I learned from my research that good parenting, irrespective of childhood socioeconomic status, had far more to do with creating wealth than anything else in society.

Good parents also come in many varieties:

• Compassionate parents
• Mentoring parents (parents who mentor their children to succeed)
• Positive parents (upbeat, enthusiastic, optimistic parents)
• Trustworthy parents (parents devoted to one another)
• Harmonious parents (parents who greatly care for one another)
• Parents with good habits

Many who become poor adults continue to blame their parents throughout their lives for their poverty. While this might help rationalize poverty in the minds of the poor, it does nothing to fix it.

For those born into households with bad parents, the great elixir or remedy for this, is mentorship. Finding a success mentor in life, I learned from my research, mitigated the impact of growing up in a bad parent household.

This is why it is so important to find a success mentor in life. Success mentors erase much of the damage caused by bad parenting. They provide the template for a successful, wealthy life.

In my book Rich Kids, I share the success mentoring strategies and Rich Habits 177 self-made millionaires learned from their parents. Most of the parents of those self-made millionaires (76%) were poor or middle-class, highlighting the fact being raised poor or middle-class is unimportant. What is important, however, is being raised by good parents – parents who are success mentors to their children.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•