The McCollumn - 11/19/10

End of entitlement

“You can be whatever you want to be. You can do whatever you want to do. The world is yours for the taking”

Those phrases could be what I think is the downfall of my generation, the grouping of Gen Y Americans that now stand poised to enter the workforce and begin the careers and dreams we’ve always been promised by our forebears.

Well, guess what?

We can’t be whatever we want to be. We take what jobs we can to get by and make do.

We can’t do whatever we want to do. That sort of hedonistic claptrap has lead to the most overinflated sense of self-worth I’ve ever seen. My peers, and myself, are guilty of becoming accurately labeled the “Entitlement Generation.”

Our grandfathers fought bravely to preserve this country’s freedoms at home and abroad, storming beaches in Normandy and planting flags in Iwo Jima. They came home to dreams of college provided by the G.I. bill and raised solid, middle class families content with their lot.

Their children, our parents, were made to work for what they earned. A car was a privilege that was earned when you had taken the responsibility to get a job and earn the money to help buy it yourself, if not buy it outright.

That generation, a generation that lost too many of its ranks to the misfortune of Vietnam, worked hard, saved, and put away money for their children, to give them better than the generation who came before them.

Then, came us: Gen X and Gen Y.

A generation whose grandpa worked on an assembly line to provide a nice living for his family, whose dad took a job as a financial analyst and broker to help provide more to his children than the opportunities he was given.

Our generation – well, we expect. We demand. We feel entitled to request whatever we want because you’ve told us we can have it.

Every generation wants to give the generation that comes after it a better and easier life than what they had.

My generation seldom earned their cars – they were a 16^th birthday rite of passage. If one wasn’t produced, all hell broke loose.

There are now shows on MTV that dedicate hours of programming to such nonsense, showcasing brats and spoiled princesses demanding everything from purple limo arrivals, couture gowns and rap star appearances all for a simple birthday party for a child.

It sickens me. It worries me that things like this might be why the terrorists hate us. They live on a dollar a day; we spend $50,000 on a birthday and broadcast it on national television.

Parents, please do your children a favor.

Don’t inundate them with the idea that they are the greatest thing to happen to the world.

Don’t tell them that they have the ability and spunk to be and do whatever they want to do.

Encourage them to pursue their interests and skills they seem to naturally possess.

Not every child will be an astronaut or a senator, but a good living can be made as a welder or plumber.

Let your children find what they want to do and encourage them to do that.

You may want them to be a lawyer or an astronaut, but they might just really want to be a social worker and help people in need or a journalist who just wants to help pass along people’s stories.

Part of the problem here, too, comes from the fact that the parents’ expectations for what a child is capable of might be too high.

Your child’s contentment and happiness should be your first concern.

If they want to be an artist, encourage them to be the best artist they can be.

If they want to cook, send them to cooking school, spurring them along the way.

Be their biggest booster and supporter when they choose their career, even if it isn’t what you may have dreamed for them.

Don’t force them to do what you think they should do. It can only lead to resentment and bitterness.

That, dear friends, is what your kids really need.

Let them choose their lives and destinies. Offer advice and consent, but know that it may not always be taken the way you’d want it to.

Just “Let it be.” I promise, it can and usually does work itself out within time.