This happens not just with the stereotypically ultra-rich, lives-in-a-mansion types, but also with the upper middle class. This troper and an alarmingly large amount of kids in her (very expensive private) school are this. I am more the "upper middle class" type who's never even seen a mansion before, and yet both of my parents work late. For a long while, my mother rarely came home at all because she had to work in Germany, and my father was just unusually obsessed with working in the office until past midnight. I was raised by my grandparents until I was old enough to stay in the house on my own when they were out.

Other kids in my school have varying levels of this. It's rare to have a parent who is home before 7pm. Many kids live here on their own because their parents' work requires them to be in another country (although sometimes they stay with an older sibling or even a hired nanny). Some just plain don't see their parents much at all due to their work schedules. It's rather disheartening to see your classmates' faces light up with ecstasy at the mere prospect of having lunch with their parents, or hearing nearly half your grade admit that they don't really know what their parents are like because they don't see them often.

This troper's childhood and early adolescence was unfortunately defined by this trope. My parents' jobs often required them to be either out of the state/country or just at the office late most of the time. I had a nanny for a few years, but became a solo latchkey kid around 9, and because I didn't have anyone to take me to friends' homes, I spent most of my time at home, reading anything I could get my hands on. ItGotWorse: When I was 11, my parents divorced and got joint custody of me, and I was thrust into the "messenger kid" role between the two of them. One year my mom forgot my birthday (my 12th). Another time, my dad forgot to pick me up at camp. Oh, and when I was 15, my father and stepmother decided to go to Greece for Christmas, and figured I could just stay with my mother while they were gone. They didn't tell me this. My mother was in Brussels for a conference and wouldn't be home for another week. I spent that Christmas in a bizarro ''HomeAlone'' situation (minus the burglars). It wasn't an ideal upbringing by any means, and I was definitely a very lonely and maladjusted kid, but I've gotten some great material out of it over the years (the Home Alone story always kills at Christmas parties).

One of my friends in the Romanian equivalent of junior high had this as his BerserkButton: he was the son of a successful lawyer and by no means phlegmatic, but if you commented on his SpoiledBrat status he became almost apoplectic at once. He was also a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk, but a quite mild case thereof, and an avid reader with a better-than-average intellect; when in a good mood he was an engaging partner in conversation. A lot of people gave him more flak than he deserved because of his social status, though teachers tended to kiss his ass. Since then I've lost contact with him and found a new level of caustic bitterness toward the upper classes; we probably wouldn't get along anymore - Rottenvenetic