Kids born into a life of luxury often have a contorted view of reality. They never learned to be independent, they've never had to work for anything and they don't understand the value of a dollar. But that privileged life can only last so long. From learning how to cook eggs to totalling a $325,000 sports car, here's how these spoiled rich kids got a serious reality check.
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#1 Jail Time
I grew up with rich kids and still keep in touch with a few of them. One guy's father owned the most prestigious law firm in town. He said his life changed the moment he called his father from jail, the second time it happened. His father said "Well, sorry to hear you got arrested, good luck", then hung up. He said getting locked back into his cell was the singular moment that completely turned his life around.
#2 It's Not Free?
At a Starbucks and she thought apparently people gave her parents free drinks and such for her all these years. Like the cashier told her the total and she said, "Wait I don't get it for free?" She never realized her parents swiping their cards all those years was paying for her things I guess.
#3 No More Car
I knew this rich kid from high school that went off to college and partied every single night. His parents found out that he was failing basically all of his classes, so they secretly drove up early one Saturday morning with the spare set of keys to the car they had bought him and just drove off with the car.
#4 Just Trying to Get Her Trust Fund
One of my college roommates was very rich growing up. I didn't realize just how rich until I had to explain to her what a coupon was in very extensive detail. On multiple occasions, she bragged that she wasn't even interested in her major (philosophy), or college in general, but she was at uni because her parents were requiring her to get a degree, any degree, in order to get access to her trust fund.
I don't remember ever seeing her go to class and she eventually got expelled sophomore year over academic dishonesty. I guess this was the last straw for her parents because they cut her off pretty soon after that. This actually served as a wake-up call. She somehow managed to get a public health degree at a different school in spite of the academic dishonesty listed on her transcript. She's doing pretty well for herself these days. We've kept in touch and last we talked she was considering grad school.
#5 Cut Off
Somewhat distant relative spent all of his university years and twenties partying hard with the 100-120k allowance his rich company owning father gave him each year. He'd travel the world each year going to Bali, Thailand, Europe, every year Oktoberfest, just rampaging.
At 32 or so, he decided to settle an upscale ski resort area of the U.S. and open a business with his hot gold digger fiance. When he went to transfer his money to his U.S. bank account he noticed it only came to a few thousand dollars. He angrily asked the bank worker why she hadn't transferred the entire amount only to be told that that was the entire amount. His father had cut him off without saying anything and he just hadn't noticed. Absolute flatline.
#6 He Punched a Residence Assistant
Rich scummy injury lawyer’s kid was in my class in high school. Goes to college (mid-size school in the Midwest) and gets plastered (parents bought him and his friends alcohol since freshman year so nothing new) and RA says he has to write him up for alcohol in the dorms. He punches two RAs, then gets cops called on him and knocks a cop’s tooth out. Long story short his parents have to drive back six hours after one day to get him and he’s not even allowed to leave the state until his hearing. Last I heard he’s working at a fast-food establishment.
#7 Got the Cops Called on Him
A rich guy in our college dorm thought he was untouchable cause his dad was some NFL player from the '90s and had not blown all his money yet! He would get freshman girls tipsy and then film himself with them and then show all his buddies the next day or so. Well, one buddy was not as close as he thought and went to the RA who then went to campus police and then real police. It was a fun night watching the parking lot fill up with the bored cops on duty that night and haul his butt out of the dorms while they went and gathered his evidence!
#8 Maxed Out Daddy's Card
In a country with high alcohol taxation, rich kids enter pub, like 10-12 of them, and throw their bank card at the bartender, demanding shots.
"What would y'all like?"
"Whatever lol, dad is paying lmao."
The bartender pours double J.W. Blues for all the brats and some randoms that they treated. The brat with card had tears in his eyes when the tab came in.
"Dad's going to kill me.."
I did enjoy the free drink though.
#9 Entitled Instagram Model
That one Instagram model who got caught on video talking poorly to a security guard at Vidcon. Not only did the guard stand his ground and not let him in (because he wasn't famous enough to be given a pass and too rich to just buy one) but once the Internet saw the video the guard ended up with more followers than the kid.
#10 Chose Otherwise
Here's a switch... A highly successful local doctor/politician expects his son to attend medical school and become a doctor. Son opts out, gets a job with a new company called Costco pumping gas. He's been with that company ever since, just his regular pay raises and bonus checks give him a good life. He just didn't want the high-stress life his dad had.
#11 Failed College
A classmate in college failed his course... partied for a year with daddy's money. Never studied... ever. The thing is, inheriting his father's construction company (two quarries, a fleet of trucks and equipment) depended on him passing the class. All he had to do was learn the basics of mechanical diagnostic and repair and be set for life.
#12 Simple Traffic Accident Gone Wrong
Saw a college guy with a ridiculously expensive car (can't remember the model) rear-end this woman who drove an absolute beater. Her car was definitely totalled and his wasn't looking that hot either. He got out and started screaming at this woman. She was in tears. He kept telling her that she was going to pay for this.
When the cops came, I saw each of them give their statements. After that, me and like 10 people came forward and gave our witness statements. It sounded like each and every one of us put the complete fault on him (which was the truth). When the cops went back to him, I saw his face just sink. He probably told them it was her fault and just found out that two handfuls of people just confirmed that he's full of BS.
I've never seen that many witnesses stick around for a simple traffic accident. I think the other people felt the same way I did: that kid was a douche and should be punished for what he did.
#13 Learned to Cook Eggs
I had a roommate in my freshman year of college that came from an incredibly rich oil family from the Middle East. I remember him having the hardest time adjusting to not having someone else prepare him food. I remember waking up one morning and going to the kitchen and seeing him try to eat eggs and toast he had just prepared himself. He asked me how I normally prepare fried eggs because his tasted really crunchy. Turns out he had just cracked the egg whole into the pan and prepared it shell and all. I couldn’t stop laughing but felt really bad for the dude.
#14 Pot Brownies
It costs $25,000 to spend a semester learning about the oceans on a boat that sails port to port. They also tell you no drugs or alcohol. One of my students didn't listen and brought aboard pot brownies. The staff found out 10 days in. They dropped her off at the first port, no credits, no refund. $25,000 down the drain for pot brownies.
#15 Thought They Could Buy Their Way In
Administration and faculty at a university refused a substantial offer of endowment money from a couple that wanted their son enrolled as an art major. Their son couldn't meet the minimum scholastic entrance requirements and he had little aptitude for art. Still, with their millions, he thought money would buy his way to an "easy degree" as an art major. He was dumbfounded to receive a notice of non-admittance.
#16 Justin Bieber Tantrum
I saw Justin Bieber throw a fit and end up not getting what he wanted. We have quarterly teambuilding exercises at my company where you basically go and play mini-golf or some other activity. Sometime between 2009 and 2011 (I really can't remember exactly) my group just decided to go for a fancy lunch in Downtown Portland. After lunch, we took one of our coworkers to the semi-famous Nike store which was a couple of blocks away and that was the day Justin Bieber happened to show up.
When he and his entourage arrived, he said something somewhat loudly along the lines of, "Y'all are going to have to leave for a bit 'cause I'm here to do some shopping," and some of his people acted like they were going to try and politely force the already-present customers out of the store so Bieber could shop alone but the Nike employees even more politely told him that was not possible. At that point, Bieber lost it. I mean he threw a total tantrum because they wouldn't shut down the store for him. The tantrum didn't work and he and his folks left in a huff. That's really my only "celebrity in the wild" encounter.
#17 No More Gravy Train
I knew a guy in high school who bragged that he didn’t have to pay attention in school because (get this) his grandfather was a Vice President of the corporation that supplied the cardboard for cereal boxes for General Mills. Real gravy train, ya know. Last I checked (since-deleted Facebook) he was still working at Best Buy five years after high school, the same job he had in high school.
#18 Prince Andrew
Probably on the BBC when Prince Andrew got the you-know-what kicked out of him for an hour about his association with Epstein.
#19 Reality Check
My best moment was when I got hired by a pair of Woodside, CA parents to transition their horrible 18-year old into the realities of "real life," something that evaded both of them. My first action was to take away his platinum, limitless credit cards. He threw a tantrum that lasted several days. "Where am I going to get money?" Get a job. "My parents will fire you." They didn't. When he realized that boundaries and budgets had been set in stone and that he not only had to pay the bills, the rent, but taxes too, he headed straight to college to wait out the next four years. He is still a little jerk, but at least he has a job and an education now.
#20 Tears of Disbelief
Tears of disbelief when seeing poverty for the first time. The first day my mission team drove into Tijuana, Mexico. We were high school students and had spent the first few days in LA "prepping" and most of the team still had this idea that we would spend 5 days in a poor area, save everyone and then go home with something amazing for our college applications.
Krista's parents were wealthy, all the parties were at her house since they had a pool, her mom used to buy her 6 or 7 prom dresses and then return the ones she didn't like because it was "easier" than shopping and she was a two-faced witch. So we're crammed into this passenger van and the border crossing into Mexico is fine but as soon as we get to our neighborhood and Krista sees scrap wood with tarps which make up the homes and children playing half-naked in streets made of dirt, when she realizes that the "water" coming down from the single bathroom isn't water, when a child happily hands her a gift, his favorite rock, she breaks.
She just completely broke down into tears and disbelief because her entire life had been sheltered from the reality of anything but the rich and spoiled. I wish I could say it changed her into a better person but she remained a spoiled and self-centered witch until I purposefully lost touch with her family. The real world can hit a rich kid but they can ignore the pain if they just focus hard enough on the car daddy promised to buy them.
#21 Bank of Mom and Dad Closed
One of my college roommates told his parents the trip we were planning (that they were paying for) was 400$ more expensive than it was so he could buy a really nice bong. In addition, they basically paid for everything he wanted. He had their credit card and ordered food on it at least once daily. He also would make $50 purchases off the card pretty regularly.
Long story short they found out he lied about the cost of the trip. For whatever reason, they still paid and let him go, but after the trip, he could not use their card anymore. This dude acted like he lived the hardest life of all time afterwards, but eventually sucked it up. He actually acts way less entitled now, it ended up having a lasting positive effect for him (even though he wouldn’t admit it).
#22 Bully Got His
There was a kid in my school who was a trust fund baby and he acted like it. He was picking on people one day and called a girl a cow (she was overweight) He then got punched by a special education kid in class. And then when he contemplated retaliating against the special education kid, he then got punched by another student who was not special needs. He did not contemplate punching him.
#23 Underaged Partiers
While working in a casino here in Las Vegas, a herd of girls came to my window and one proceeded to tell me about her great birthday party itinerary that her dad had paid for. For her 18th birthday. With no adult in the party. Just a bunch of teenage girls, out in Vegas.
Where none of them could do anything because none of them were 21. I couldn't even check them into their reservation. They start yelling and screaming at me. I calmly call security and security tells them they can either "go play in the arcade" or leave and try to find a hotel off the Strip that will take them in without being 21. The anger turns to tears, the security guard is unmoved.
#24 Not Everyone Has Money
About 10 years ago, I was having a pint with a friend of mine. I mentioned I was struggling with rent and bills while in college and he just said, "Get your mom to pay for it then mate?" She's disabled and we've never had real money. He instantly realized what he said and did feel bad about it. I think it was the first time he really understood that not everyone has their parents to lean on financially.
#25 Bad Accident
No joke here. Back in high school, this kid got a brand new Chevy Camaro. I had an old 80s Pontiac Phoenix that had the straight-six. It was by far not a racing car but this tool was just looking to brag at what he got compared to the busted cars we got. About two days later, while we were waiting at a stoplight this idiot tries to race us as I am in my car and I pull up with my friends. He does start by revving it really loud and tries to do a burnout.
Mind you the light was red and the roads were not wet. So he managed to get a tiny burnout going, some smoke and what not...When his tires did catch traction, he went barreling into the intersection and smashed the car of the wife of one of the VERY FEW cops in my small city. Needless to say, that didn't work out for him very well.
#26 Totalled His $325k Sports Car
The spoiled rich kid showed up to school in a $325,000 sports car. He was showing off, lost control of the car, and drove it through a brick wall and totalled it.
#27 Issue After Issue
A kid from my high school came from a well-known family that was very involved in politics. He slacked off in school and was mostly a condescending jerk for years. After graduation, he didn't really do anything but eventually decided to run for office as he had the same name as his father. He won easily because people didn't realize it was the kid.
As a state rep, he posted on Facebook about "Enjoying his women battered rather than plain" and asking to join the black caucus because he likes hip hop. He kept getting elected despite these issues because his family was well-connected and he had a dedicated following from some political groups.
After six years in office, he gets busted for inappropriate behavior with a minor over the internet. When they arrest him for that, they also discover he's been dealing. The worst part is that his family is actually super nice and genuinely made the community a better place, but now they have to deal with all the issues from him. He was an apple that fell very far from the tree.
#28 Crashed the Car
There's this kid that lives in a house across the street from mine. It's a pretty large place: the house is made of concrete, high ceilings, pool in the back, etc. Over the years, my brother and I have hung out with him a handful of times, but it's not so fun to hang out with a kid that's barely 11 when you're 14.
His mom is fairly wealthy, upper-middle class. She's an engineer and makes quite a bit of money. So he benefited from this by being able to spend a majority of his free time staying inside playing video games when he wasn't at school. He didn't want to pursue a career, he just wanted lounge around all day. Long story short, he crashed the car that his mom gave him. His mom refused to buy him another one, and instead, used that situation to try and motivate him to get off his butt and work. She sent him off to vocational school, since he doesn't want to go to college. We'll see how that goes.
#29 $500 Jeans
Middle school. A classmate is on the phone (when most of us didn't have cell phones) SCREAMING at her stepdad: "Patrick, I NEED the $500! I need to buy new jeans!" She did not get the $500, but she did later get to be a teen mom! So that was cool. She wanted multiple pairs of jeans. This was when boot-cut, skinny AND bedazzled jeans were all equally popular at our school. She was not going to spend the $500 on one pair.
#30 Couldn't Hold Up Daddy's Business
Local business owner puts son through college and more. When the kid graduates with multiple degrees the dad decides to retire and turn over business to son. Son brings college cronies on board, has management all wear white cowboy hats and drive white pickups, begins revamping the business. Dad comes out of retirement pronto, gets rid of son and cronies. Years later, bankrolls son's run for state rep. The son lost. The dad ended up leaving his business to his daughter.
#31 Tried to Steal a Car
When I was a teenager my sister and I saw through our windows that there were two guys getting into her car. We ran downstairs as fast as possible and caught them in the act. One managed to run away but the other one froze and didn’t run away. He couldn’t have been much older than me. My sister called the cops and the kid kept looking at us and trying to find a way to escape. My sister said, “Run if you want. My brother will catch you.”
The cops came and so did his parents. His mom drove an amazing car and the lady looked furious and sad. She was dressed really nice and looked like she was pretty successful. As soon as she got out she began yelling “Why?! We give you everything! You have everything! Why would you try and steal?! Don’t we give you enough?!”
The kid just seemed to shrink and get smaller. I don’t get it. I hope he turned his life around and began to be around better people.
#32 Learning to Cook
When I was 16, my rich friend decided he was going to cook for me and another friend of ours. We had no idea he had never cooked before in his life. To start off with, he picked up an onion. I was on my phone on Youtube, so I stopped paying attention to him. Five minutes later, he just goes "Ugh, why do they have to wrap these so tight!" He was talking about the onion. He's an Instagram influencer now. He still has enough money to not work a day in his life.
#33 Fraud
Freshman year of college, the guy across the hall from me is a spoiled rich kid from a big southern city. Old money. A couple of weeks into the second semester he and a buddy found a chequebook on the sidewalk. Stupid idiots decided to write themselves a check and cash it in the bank that the account is in. The teller immediately called the cops and they both got arrested.
We talked the night he got arrested and he laughed and said his dad would "take care of it" and everything would be fine. That weekend we met his dad as they moved everything out of the dorms since his dumb butt got expelled. Guess daddy didn't take care of it.
#34 Took the Bus
Knew a rich kid whose parents bought a car for and he treated it like absolute garbage. Purposely driving it really hard and generally abusing it, confident in the notion that his parents would buy him the one he wanted after he destroyed the one they got him. Well, they didn't buy him another one, ever. He rode the city bus and bummed rides off of friends after that. He was the most entitled guy I'd ever met, if he was over at your house he would just help himself to whatever was in the fridge like it was some sort of paid buffet.
#35 International Reality Check
Nothing too serious, but I taught at an international school in Africa and we would take the high school students camping one week out of the year. Many of these kids are not used to camping at all and have never even taken public transport; they have full-time drivers bring them to school and pick them up. Some of them are from very wealthy and politically connected families. Having to set up tents and get dirty, not be able to shower every day, and sleep on hard ground is new to them. Some of them actually love it, but others are sad pathetic wretches the entire week.
#36 Can't Buy Friends
Me. My family's financial situation was weird, so there was a time we were really doing extremely well—we had nannies, drivers and all that jazz but at the same time, was super sheltered by my fam so I had zero social cues and tact. This equals to me being a mix of a spoiled brat and have really no clue I was acting like one. I also was very rude, didn't say thank you or please... Not because I didn't want to, I was just stupidly lazy to say them.
I have a cousin who is less privileged than me, she didn't like how I was spoilt obviously. We had a fight where I left her out on a playdate. And my stupid response was Ill buy her a chocolate milk and we should be friends again. She snapped at me publicly about how I will never have friends If I think I can just buy people off. At age 11, those words stuck to me. She also never grew close to me since then no matter how mindful I tried.
A cruel twist of fate, I went to a private school with classmates who are millionaires or trust fund babies, 20x richer than I am. Because I was less white and less rich than them and fell into some financial hardships, I got bullied a lot for it.
#37 Doesn't Everyone Have a Horse?
I went to a very rich, predominantly white Catholic high school. One moment I remember was the wind absolutely being taken out of a girl's sails when I explained to her why our school dominated the area's skiing, golf, and equestrian competitions, but never anything else. For a lot of kids in that school, the moment they learned they were rich was the moment they learned that most girls don't have their own horses growing up.
#38 Not the Right Color
Dad buys a rich kid a Mercedes. It was pinkish so the kid whined about it. Dad took to away, sold it, and never bought him another car. Rich brat had to buy his own.
#39 Lost Everything to a Scratch Card
A kid I knew won a cool million off a scratch ticket when he was 19... He acted like a big shot, arrogantly buying rounds of drinks for entire bars. He didn't do anything with his life for 20 years. Then, he got the last check. He's now in an out of hospitals for alcohol poisoning and mental breakdowns... lost his paper-hat job... his girlfriend.. everything...
#40 DUI at 17
He was a 17 year old in my dad's hometown that was known for driving fast and being an all-around idiot on the road. He had multiple speeding tickets and a DUI on record. AT 17! The DUI incident was actually a car crash that totalled his car and led to him having his jaw wired shut. So what do his parents do? They give him his license back and buy him a brand new car, which I'm pretty sure was a WRX. Which crashed into a utility truck killing himself, his sister and her friend while doing almost twice the speed limit on a residential road.
#41 Totalled his Lambo
For a couple of years in high school, I went to this super expensive American private school in Switzerland. The company my dad worked for paid for almost all the tuition, so it was an amazing opportunity for me. Most of the kids in this school were either State Department or from American families living in Saudi (Saudi provided expat kids with school up until 10th grade, so you had to go to a school abroad to finish high school).
There were, however, a few Saudi kids that were there, mostly so that they would be able to speak flawless English to help out their future careers. One of these kids, who I will call The Prince, was somewhere in the line of Saudi succession, but honestly, he was like 1,455th in line for the throne. Not a real contender for King, but his family was rich. Like rich in a way that most of us can't even imagine.
This school had some rules, like you couldn't have a car as a student, even if you were old enough to get a license in Switzerland. This rule was a real buzz kill for The Prince, but he made it through the year somehow. Over the summer after his Junior year, he drove back to the school from Geneva in his Lambo, probably just because he could do it outside the school year. On his way up the mountain (the road is like an endless series of hairpin turns) he managed to flip his Lambo into vineyard while trying to navigate one of those hairpin turns. I'm guessing a Lambo has a lot of power, and he took it to hard.
His parents, furious at what he had done, decided to punish him by replacing his Lamborghini with a Porsche. And The Prince was SOOOO angry. He complained about it bitterly when the school year started up again. The rest of us kind of just looked at each other in amazement. Same planet, different worlds I guess.
#42 Bad Driver
I'm trying to be a better man and not take delight in anyone's misfortune but... A rich kid in my high school totalled his pickup truck. Got pissed when parents wouldn't replace it, so purposefully crashed his twin brother's pickup truck cause if he couldn't have one neither could the brother... not to mention all the legal stuff that I'm sure was fall out from doing that.
Anyways, the kid disappeared. I assumed he went to jail or some equivalent. Found out recently that no, he didn't actually, his parents literally disowned him, like with the paperwork and everything and sent him on his way to fend for himself. And I have no idea how life turned out.
#43 Do You Know Who I Am?
A local rich kid had his SUV parked in a no-parking area at a club, tow truck shows up to tow it away and the kid goes ballistic “do you know who my dad is” etc. to the driver. After a minute or two of this the passenger gets out of the tow truck and is a full patch Hell’s Angel. The biker “politely” tells him it doesn’t matter who he thinks his family is and the SUV is towed away.
#44 What's a Budget?
I knew one who apparently couldn't fathom how people live on a budget. We used to hang out a lot at her insistence but she liked to eat at expensive places whereas I'd have no issue having my meals somewhere cheaper. However, she kept pouting and insisting I stay. I said I couldn't unless she wanted to spot me. She didn't.
I then walked her through the math and showed her that the cost of my meals with her, every day, totalled my entire wage for the month. She didn't stop pouting but from then on I could eat by myself in peace.
#45 $70,000 Mistake
I knew a kid in high school whose parents were loaded. When he got his driver's license they bought him a $70,000 Mercedes. Within a month or two he totalled the car while driving drunk. Parents pulled strings to get him off the full weight of the DUI. Oh, and they bought him another $70,000 Mercedes.
