Entitlement Syndrome

Walking to the parking garage today, I watched an interesting development unfold.  Someone actually had the audacity to put on their turn signal and wait as traffic passed by to make left turn into an alley in downtown Richmond.  What?  You don’t find that odd?  Well, neither did I - but apparently, the young gal in the silver car had somewhere much more fascinating to be because with a tremendous amount of attitude and glaring looks, she sped around the red car waiting to turn.  She zoomed through a cross walk huffing and puffing as she floored it right on up to a red light.  What the heck’s your hurry, sister?  All that just to come to a complete stop fifty feet later?

One of the mystifying occurrences in today’s society seems to be that there are many folks out there who think the whole world revolves around them.  They are entitled to whatever they want, however they choose to obtain it simply because - oh, I don’t know - they breathe air, maybe?  It’s really toxic to be around people who don’t give or give back or pay forward or anything except simply expect.  I can’t wrap my brain around that type of person and honestly I don’t spend a whole lot of time focusing on it either. But I try to come to conclusions a lot - part of my job is to research things I don’t fully understand and then explain them to others.  So I  did a little research on entitlement and found that Licensed Clinical Social Work and Life Coach Carol Juergenson-Sheets suggests that it is an actual syndrome - yep, you guessed it - called Entitlement Syndrome.

Entitlement Syndrome may be caused by parents who feel that it is necessary to keep up with the ‘whoevers’ by giving their kid everything.  These kids are signed up for every activity whether parents can afford it or not.  The parents entire world revolves around the kid (whether they can afford it or not). And what that is doing is creating the illusion that the whole world revolves around the kid. 

Don’t get me wrong - I love my kids dearly.  One is an athlete, one is a dancer. They both play an instrument and they both take acting classes.  The music lessons and acting classes are gifts from their grandparents and both the guitar and piano teachers come to the house.  Otherwise, we would be rethinking that.  I do drive to soccer games and practice but I have never been known to leave my job early to do so.  I have to leave early enough, or come in late enough, to take them to the doctor, the dentist, the orthodontist and now the endocrinologist on a pretty regular basis.

I think that peaceful existence involves being cognizant of others around us and realizing that our true happiness comes when we can be of service to others.  Helping people out, giving when we can or just simply waiting our turn while somebody crosses the street is a great way to invite peace in and let it stay for awhile.