“If your parents had to use a wooden spoon on you, then they clearly didn’t know how to parent you.”

Yep. I got that email last night after I posted my blog. I honestly had to laugh. Here was a stranger criticizing my parents. I tend to think they did a pretty good job. They raised three, well-rounded children. One is a successful HR exec, one is a journalist and the other is a doctor. Clearly they did something right. 😉 And let’s be real for a minute, it wasn’t all about a wooden spoon. It was about manners and respect.

I went home and was talking to my husband about it. He said, “This is why we have a generation of entitled kids.”

I repeated that earlier today and someone asked in shock: “How could you say something like that?!”

Because I have seen it first-hand.

At my last job, there was a young woman who was interning with our station. She showed up to work one day wearing extremely short shorts and a halter top. To work. Our news director at the time said, “You have two options…you can run home and get changed and come back…or you can just go home.” Her response came quickly and loudly: “WHO THE F@#K ARE YOU TO TALK TO ME LIKE THAT? YOU CAN’T TELL ME TO GO HOME!!”

Ahh…and there it is. The entitlement coming out. The “I have never been told no because I want to be your friend…let me give you a trophy because you signed up to play soccer even though you never come to practice, only games…I’m not going to give you a grade on this test because I don’t want you to think you’re a failure, even though you don’t study…you’re going to sit in time-out and then we will discuss why you called your mom the B-word…I can post anything I want on social media because I have freedom of speech…I won’t be held accountable at school because my parents will come and yell at the teacher for me.”

I will say it until I am blue in the face: I am thankful I was raised the way I was raised in the era I was raised in. We used the terms ma’am and sir…we said please and thank you…we wouldn’t dare look at our parents cross-eyed…if we didn’t study, we failed…if we didn’t go to practice, we didn’t play in the game…if we didn’t win, we didn’t get a trophy…if we talked back to our parents, we got the back of my mom’s hand to our mouths…if we used a bad word, we got soap in our mouths…if we acted up in school, our parents were called to the principal’s office and we served detention…if we didn’t like our dinner, then we didn’t eat…if we were late for curfew, we were grounded…if we lied, we had our toys taken away…if we misbehaved in the neighborhood, our neighbors would discipline us…if we didn’t get hired for a job, then we weren’t who they wanted.

We weren’t handled with kid gloves. Our parents let us fall so we learned how to get back up. We were told the word “NO” and told it often. It wasn’t about our parents being “our friends.” It was tough love. Why? Because they knew how tough the world is.

I’m over the “entitlement era.”

I’m nowhere near a perfect parent. I learn something new everyday. But I do know…I want to raise my kids the way I was. Because I don’t want to send spoiled, entitled brats into the world.

There is only one thing I knew: whatever my parents did…worked.

And guess who my best friends are now? Yep. My mom and dad. The ones who were “so mean” growing up.

http://addins.kwwl.com/blogs/anchormom/2015/04/the-entitlement-generation 

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As I child I was scared of getting in trouble. But as I matured, I obeyed out of RESPECT.

I can't write any books on parenting, but I pray I'm doing things right and my children are always respectful.

Another key value I try to instill is appreciation. I guess this is in someways opposite of entitlement.

bet if you could go back and read stuff from one or two generations prior or talk to them, you'll hear them saying "what's the matter with kids today?"

just makes us the new old fogies!!! welcome to the circle of life.

+1

BUT

I know more than a few people who felt entitled to Social Security Disability including Medicare benefits, and never worked a day in their life or paid any taxes.

Social Security should be abolished.

Don't forget that the big "O" is giving these benefits away as part of his amnesty deal, and illegals will be able to file for retro-active benefits for up to 3yrs.

well, you pay in now to be eligible later on, people on SS now are being paid by those working now...theoretically. So it's not really like an investment you tap later on.

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It would have had plenty of money exceptl Congress replaced the money it with IOUs and spent the money.

We just like this particular entitlement program so do not want to apply the correct terminology to it.

It's the same with Medicare. There is no one to one relationship between premium and expenditure. There is no link at all.

Using this logic insurance is an entitlement.