I was bought a ZX81 after I pestered my parents for months, unfortunately they were not particularly well off, so they couldn't afford a tape recorder, which meant I had to write my own games (copied from magazines at first of course).
I now own a couple of software companies and have had the good fortune of making my once hobby my career.
I'm definitely grateful to my parents for shelling out (after ~1 y of begging) for the first computer, an ZX clone; then for a 386 !
I think starting on a ZX was a blessing and a curse at the same time :) I shaped my career, but I continue to think of processor cycles and RAM as being very expensive in terms of time :(
What I meant to write was: And that they spent insane amounts of money, relative to their income, later on... [on an 8086 and then a 486 PC].
I suspect that quite a lot of us now sort-of-old-timers owe our careers to parents who did something similar to what my parents did to me.