- English translation
With money, your child is carried; without it, your child must walk.
- Literal wording
You have money: your son is carried. You have nothing: your son walks.
- Meaning and lesson
A single picture of a child on the road shows the gap between rich and poor. Whether the little one is borne along or left to trudge depends not on the child at all, but on what the parent can pay. Ease is something a full purse can buy.
From that picture the saying draws a wider lesson. Respect, comfort and a raised position in the world follow money closely, while poverty leaves people to shoulder burdens unaided. Social worth, it suggests, is measured largely by what one owns.
- When it is used
Suited to remarks on how a household's finances shape the comfort and regard its members receive, for instance when comparing children from families of unequal means. It reads as an observation about inequality rather than as advice on raising children or praise for wealth.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: With money, your child is carried; without it, your child must walk.