Are all of today's teens/20-somethings dealing with entitlement issues?

[threedogs]

I, frankly, have to essentially agree in a more reserved tone with ideafx. People IN GENERAL and not of any specific age group would do well to wake up to the real world and be happy with what they can get. The most entitled people in my life (and I'm not saying this is the norm as I suspect it is fairly equally spread) are 40 and 50 somethings who over-extended themselves and don't want to give up what they couldn't afford. Consumerism upsets me. I hate hearing about your $100 bottles of champagne and $1000 days in Vegas. It makes me sick that people are starving amongst this excess, and then the people participating in the excess lose their house due to sheer stupidity and waste. banghead

Boy, do I ever agree with you there! My family tends to kid me about my crazy optimism - I've basically gone through hell and back again, but I really do see the silver lining.

One is that now that the economy basically sucks, I've had great training, having had it tough for so many years. The sad thing is my parents were from the Depression years (hate to call it the "Great" Depression, cuz this is a fairly new term, and I feel there wasn't anything great about it. :ack: They both worked hard, and my dad did the old fashioned, providing for his family stuff. They were never foolish w/their money, always careful. But when I married & had kids, my family always had it tough.

Flash forward to after they passed away, and when I inherited the house, and through some bad moves I ended up losing the money I got when I sold it. (well, actually didn't 'lose' it - spent it on rent instead of buying another house. Result is the same, and it was due to some of that stupidity you speak of. ~ sigh ~)

I will never live that down! Now I fear that my kids will have to support me in my old age, something I'm trying to avoid by going to school.

At any rate, it made me much, much wiser. I polished up my money saving techniques. I can easily live on about $40 a wk for food, and I'm working towards less as I get back to gardening. I also hope to pass on what I've learned to others (not sure how right now).

I also try to be compassionate to others - I wasted so much buying little things I didn't need - it really adds up. Sometimes it takes time to learn.

Also, parents who expect to be able to provide somebody with everything they want and then stop on a dime generating a radical life-style shift are nothing short of foolish. The shift must be gradual, or just don't spoil your kid to begin with. Nobody adjusts well to a major negative life change, especially a drastic, sudden, unanticipated one. I think that has more to do with it than anything.

So true, so true. Problem is, what we need are degree programs in raising kids! By the time we realize what we should have done - it sometimes seems as though it's too late.

I moved out at early 16, I've lived among and seen some shit I can barely believe. I've slept in the parks (BTW, don't do that if you are ever homeless, I guess they can arrest you), I've done the drill. Ungrateful, ignorant people who don't believe in bad luck or 2nd chances (until it happens to them, then the world is so unfair because they need to get a smaller house) are going to be the death of us.

Sad to say, you probably could teach those people a thing or two about surviving - and you never know - I don't wish bad on anyone, but those very "ungrateful, ignorant people" might need some hard, true advice on just that, one day.