<p>Forget</a> the Old College Try, Ring the Concierge - WSJ.com</p>
<p>Excerpt:</p>
<p>"College used to be a great equalizer: No matter their parents' social status, students who came to campus tended to deal with basic life skills on their own—from frying up grilled cheese sandwiches to unclogging toilets and folding laundry. That was before companies like BCCG made it possible to summon butlers, drivers and gofers with a click or a call."</p>
<p>I just threw up in my mouth a little.</p>
<p>I doubt it is that common. Back when I was in college I knew a wealthy kid from Greece who paid others to do things for him all the time - including taking tests and writing papers. I think there has always been a group of students who does not do things for themselves. My D went to college with someone who only flew on private jets.</p>
<p>it should not bother you! is it silly IMO…yes… but people need to worry about themselves !</p>
<p>This is only the very rich that make use of those…</p>
<p>If you attend an elite school, it is more common than you know. My roommate had 30k in her checking account (many years ago) and flew to NYC to party with her other uber wealthy friend on weekends… She did not know, to not put cashmere in the washer/ dryer and ruined an entire wardrobe because she never did laundry. After that someone did come and help her with laundry and of course she just went out and bought new things. Quite a memory for me.</p>
<p>News flash: Some rich people spend a lot of money.</p>
<p>It’s not the spending money. It’s having minions wash your socks. It’s teenagers who can’t function because everything is done for them and the sense of entitlement that comes with it. It’s parents who don’t trust their children to be able to take care of themselves.</p>
<p>I just think it’s gross and kind of sad and pathetic. My opinion.</p>
<p>The examples of the customers in the article were mostly rich internationals, who aren’t at all representative of the average (or even above-average) college student.</p>
<p>My D’ s college offers an expensive laundry service option. My D noticed that most who use it are international students from cultures where such labor is considered degrading.</p>
<p>PS not a view I share. I actually like doing laundry. I find it soothing.</p>
<p>I guess there will always be wealthy, spoiled kids who can afford to pay for such services.</p>
<p>There have always been spoiled rich kids and their rich parents with more money than sense, and there likely always will be. But what strikes me as new in this is the advent of concierge companies specifically targeting these rich kids as their main or even sole clientele. That suggests that the spoiled, rich college kids are getting more common - common enough to begin to support a small industry designed to cater to just them.</p>
<p>I think it is great. Some entrepreneurs have identified a demand and are filling it.</p>
<p>I used to think it was terrible and embarrassing that my mother never taught me how to do some basic life-skill things (not because I was spoiled - I think she either just forgot or liked doing them herself). When I discovered how utterly simple it was to learn how to do them, I thought, oh big whoop, who cares if I have to learn them later in life.</p>
<p>I teach ESL at a community college. Today I was asking the students to describe their car (if they have one) to practice the order of adjectives. I started with my own car, an “old, small blue Japanese car”. I was taken aback at how many 20-year-old Chinese students have a “big new shiny German car” (brand-new Mercedes or BMW). And it’s surprising how many of them have numerous DUIs or speeding tickets. Ah well, at least in my 2006/100,000 mile Toyota I don’t get speeding tickets.</p>
<p>WOW! I had no idea! Kudos to the folks who came up with the idea to service this segment of the population as they clearly understand the …fool…money…soon parted concept! For the parents shelling out the money for this service I hope they have GIGANTIC bank accounts because they are going to be providing this type of economic life support for a very, very, very long time! Sad! How do you ever learn to appreciate a party with a mariachi band if you have not “had” to throw a few chips, keg, and red solo cup parties?</p>
<p>My idea of gigantic may not always always be someone else’s gigantic. Not sure why it would be sad. I always try not to impose my normalcy to others. I also don’t believe rich equates spoiled.</p>
<p>Re the “sadness” of it all: the USA generally has a very middle-class attitude toward things like self-care and the value of menial labor. Self-reliance is a prized cultural value and the idea that you would require someone else to perform basic self-care tasks (laundry, cooking, casual entertaining, negotiating with the township re a speeding ticket) on your behalf is seen as ridiculous. There are other cultures, more aristocratic in nature, where incompetence in certain basic areas of life is seen as a status symbol rather than a personal failing.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because I live in Southern California, but none of this surprises me at all. TPTShorty mentions 20-year-old ESL students with BMW’s and Mercedes; you should see the STUDENT parking lots at the HIGH SCHOOLS around here. And a mariachi band seems tame compared to the conspicuous-consumption children’s birthday parties that some people throw. These people don’t represent the values of me or my family, but I don’t get worked up about it. I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t approve of the expensive (pre-financial crash) vacations that we went on when my daughter was younger.</p>
<p>I have to say, though, I don’t understand the fetishization of laundry as the litmus test for whether a kid is spoiled or not. Every time this topic comes up, people talk about laundry. Recently, I wondered out loud in the presence of a friend if the schools my daughter was considering had laundry service. You would have thought that I was thinking of signing the kid up for daily caviar service! We don’t live lavishly by any means, but if my kid was, say, willing to sign up for a cheaper meal plan (i.e., one that doesn’t allow for the on-campus Starbucks or fast food joints) or use some of her job earnings to pay for someone to do her laundry, I don’t see the harm. [I’m ducking from all the bottles that are going to be thrown at me.] I’m probably not going to agree to this, however, because of the very fact that this seems to be such a litmus test for a kid’s character.</p>
<p>Nottelling, no bottles here:)</p>
<p>For my own D, I feel that at 19 she ought to know how to do her own laundry, clean, drive, fill out her tax forms, pay bills, and do some basic cooking. I have not made arrangements for others to do these things for her because I want to force her to learn how to do them. If she gets to a point where she makes enough money from her own efforts to hire an accountant, hire a cleaning service, a laundry service, or whatever, it’s not as if I will have any moral objection.</p>
<p>Seriously, does anyone think it is hard to do laundry, cook a basic meal, pay bills…etc.? No, it is not. It is very easy. So who cares whether some kid learns to do it 19 or at 30 or ever at all? One can learn to do those things in 10 minutes or less. Its not like people need years of experience to master these tasks.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s hard. I think it’s important (if you’re not rich and you don’t want to live in squalor, that is).</p>
<p>PS cooking and driving take more than 10 minutes to learn.</p>