Love between father and child is never about money. But being wealthy never hurts.

It's even an easy excuse. For example, take the story of the 11-year-old Indian boy, who "loves both parents equally." Given his options thanks to a mano-a-womano custody battle, he chooses to live with his richer father. We can hope his mom isn't too angry, given his maturity in using that as his reason, even though the court did note, " ... But it would be wrong to say that [the father's financial status] is the only reason why he wants to be with his father. There appears to be some bond between the two."

Another child with a special bond beyond her father's affluence is Juliet Hartford, who has been taking care of her father — the late grocery story heir, a one-time bon vivant and latter bankrupt, Huntington Hartford. Despite his profligacy with what could have been her inheritance, she kept plugging away at trying to save him from himself ... and after all the years it was cancer and age, not his libertine ways that got him.

Bankruptcy also played a key part in the relationship of CEO Jun Haraguchi and his dad. Fortunately for him, papa Haraguchi's company fell down the tubes, freeing him to pursue his dream of rockstardom. And the pursuit of that dream gave his dad the opportunity to confess his own musical dreams, cementing a bond that had already existed without words. Young Haraguchi's quest for his dreams led to wisdom, other opportunities and, of course, making papa proud.

Because, no matter what other's say — and no matter how many times a child comes palm face up and awaiting allowance — it's never the money that forges the bond.

** This isn't to fight the truism that "money makes the world go 'round," only to aver that it isn't what keeps fathers and children together as everything spins around them. **