Entitled

I have a hard time with entitlement. Our parents don't owe us anything financially. We don't "deserve" a huge inheritance, or anything at all. I hope my parents spend as much money as they can before they die. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be left with a lot of debt and no money to clear things up, but feeling entitled to everything they ever saved and worked for? I have seen some kids going through this lately it seems, watching their parents remarry, and worrying about the money that the new husband/wife is "stealing" from them. It's their money. Always has been. I don't like it. It makes me sad. It's not an eternal outlook. It seems so selfish.

Then today, my Cars said to me, " It's my spring break. I deserve to do whatever I want, and not clean your house." It didn't go over well. All at once I realized that my kids have that same entitlement disease. They feel entitled to laziness and to getting everything they want at their beckon call. I talked to Cars about how we as a nation are becoming more and more "entitled" or "selfish" and it's going to ruin us. After talking with him for about 10 minutes about things that are happening in the world today, I am scared. I have to do a MUCH better job of helping them realize that nobody owes them anything. We as parents are required to give them a place to sleep, clothes to wear (no specific brand or kind), and 2 meals a day. Of course, we want to give them so much more. We want them to feel happy and loved and cherished.

That's a hard thing to do, while still teaching them to be grateful and humble and blessed. I am going to work a whole lot harder to teach my kids that they need to work for what they have. Even if that just means being more grateful for what is just handed over to them.