Getting handed everything on a silver platter as a child or even an adult may seem like a wonderful concept but in the long run it does not do anyone any favours as the receivers end up with a sense of entitlement and a satisfaction of nothing.
As the Rolling Stones sang, “I can’t get no satisfaction.”
Nowadays, there appears to be a whole generation who have grown up being given everything in life by doting parents, even as adults, who do not want their offspring to have the same struggles as they did in life. This is flawed reasoning as it is the struggles in life that make someone a well-rounded adult who can deal with all that life throws at them and appreciate everything that they achieve and own.
If you grow up being given every toy that you wanted, immediately you asked for it. How long did you play with it or before it was broken? A couple of days max, I suppose. Whereas, if you only received new toys on your birthday and at Christmas (or Chinese New Year) those toys would be cherished and well cared for.
I know teenagers that when on passing their driving test have been given a brand-new car, not a bottom of the range like a Kia or a Toyota but a Mercedes or a BMW and within in days had scratched or pranged it. But if someone had to save up to buy an old banger to drive it will be treated with the utmost respect.
Children who are bought the latest in-fashion trainers or clothes will want the newest models and trends as soon as they appear on the market, while someone who has to wait or save up for trainers or clothes they want will be extremely happy with their purchase and take great care of it.
What do you think I am trying to say here? Do you know the quote by Theodore Roosevelt? who was the 26th president of America from 1901 to 1909.
He said, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
This comes to mind when I hear of or meet people who have never had to strive or struggle for anything in their lives and who have no respect for or are satisfied by anything. These are the people that feel they are entitled to everything and take everything for granted.
Doing it for yourself is better than receiving everything
It is true that if you have to work hard to obtain or achieve something, the satisfaction in obtaining or achieving it is great, whereas having it handed to you on a silver platter ends with a shrug of the shoulders and “whatever”, on to the next “I want”.
I watched a TV programme recently, which was a true story, of successful parents that gave their only child everything he ever wanted, a car, money in his pocket, even a house, that he couldn’t stay in and had to move back in with his parents as he was incapable of looking after himself. At 34-years-old, this man-child had never really had a job, despite being well educated, intelligent and well liked, spent his days in the local pub drinking the days away.
His parents had eventually had enough of his behaviour and lack of respect for anything that they told hm he would get nothing more from them and that he had to get a job. After another heavy drinking session and being berated by his mother he brutally murdered both his parents.
The pub regulars, who had regarded him as a great bloke and a good friend were horrified to discover that he had lied through his teeth about every aspect of his life. At his trial he really believed that he would be acquitted of the murders, as he had got away with everything else in his life. Because the fact that he had murdered his parents was their fault for refusing to give him anything else.
I know this is extreme, but it does happen because of the entitlement that these pampered children grow up with. What is worrying is that more and more children are growing up with this attitude because of parents that think they are doing the right thing. It is not an isolated incident, think of Lyle and Erik Menéndez in 1996 who murdered their parents in California.
What I am trying to say is that everyone in life needs to get the satisfaction of obtaining or achieving something through hard work.
You will appreciate whatever it is so much more than treating it as something that can easily be discarded or disregarded after a short period of time.
Do you want “Money for nothing” like Dire Straits or be like The Vogues with “Five o’clock world”?
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
