I think I'm an Elitist

Yeah, I'm quite comfortable saying that I tend to think less of people from wealthy backgrounds. It's this school that does it too me. More specifically, dealing with the parents of the kids whose health I'm trying to look after.

"I want a real doctor" a parent said to me today, "And then I'm going to sue the school." The woman was from Russia. She had begun the conversation by yelling and screaming, but after hanging up the phone on her several times she seemed to get the picture. "And why would you want to do that?" I asked innocently. It turns out that several Russian girls, along with forty other students, went on a school trip to France. The three Russian girls had shared a hotel room and it wasn't until the end of their three day stay that they noticed some itchy spots on random parts of their body. When they came back to school myself and the rest of the nursing staff concluded that they were bites, bed bug bites that is.

"How dare you send my daughter to a cheap hotel.." I interrupted her "Ah, I'm just the nurse, you need to talk to the headmaster" I explained. "Well, the medicine your school doctor prescribed didn't help at all. I want a real doctor. I'm going to take my daughter out of school to see a specialist." I can't imagine what good a specialist would do, except tell them to wash their clothes and bed linen, but I didn't argue. Wealthy parents, especially wealthy eastern European parents tend to like to throw their money around.

The above scenario is not unique. In fact many parents of the above mentioned ethnic group always begin a conversation by yelling, accusing and then threatening, although it does explain why the Russian Mafia do so well, if this is how the average Russian behaves.

But in reality these children and their parents aren't the average Russian. The average Russian/Eastern European I've met tends to be down to earth, honest and hard working, as well as rather poor. What I do know is that these wealthy parents made a lot of money very quickly over the last 10-20years. It's just a shame they've lost their values, although I suspect many of them had none to begin with. It's also a shame that money can't buy common class.