Thursday, April 28, 2016

Enabled generation

Every generation has adults worried about the youth not living up to their potential.
In the 60's we called them Hippies.
The 70's they were called Burn Outs.
The 80's? Airheads. Gothics. Head Banger.
In the 90's they were Punks.
Now we are here in the 00's and 10's and we are hearing the Entitled Generation.
Most of us have good intentions but we need to ask ourselves: Am I truly helping this person? Is this the right thing to do?
Instead we are worried: What will they think of me? I don't want to upset this person.
The synonyms of the word entitlement include qualify, make eligible, authorize, allow, permit. Maybe the better question is to ask are we qualifying, authorizing, permitting this behavior?
The foolish choice is the easy choice. No one is immune to entitlement. It is an epidemic. The truth is we all have a child in each of us that we need to teach to behave. 
Entitlement, the behavior, is the symptom not the problem. The problem is enabling someone.