Seeing others helps my kids realize it's not what you have that's important. Really. My dd has a best friend who has an iphone and her parents own a business as well as a large house, and another best friend who is homeless, and another....They all hang together. I love that about our school. And I KNOW we'd give that up if she went to private school. How valuable is this to her? It always seems like social and academic values collide these days.
My wife looks at things differently and would like to shield our children from lifestyles she disapproves of. The children have been told that you are "not allowed" to have children before you are married. When our daughter noted that she had an afterschool teacher who was an unwed mother, my wife was a bit annoyed with the center employing her (but did not say anything). The children rarely go on playdates (there are three of them, close in age, so they entertain each other), but she would be more likely to accept a playdate with a child from a "good family" which is academically inclined.
