It seems unlikely that the LW and her hushand have no interests or values in common with any of their children, even though the only interests LW mentions are money and formal education. I suspect that what the parents want to talk about is status markers--not "what cool things dod you learn?" or what their children enjoy doing, but grades and that the children aren't in college.

I'm not surprised that children who "have had health problems from birth," and are working menial jobs, are ignorant of investing: what would they be investing with?