Entitlement

[susandennis]

My brother and his wife are now home and back at work in post-cruise vacation mode. He said they had a great time and Dana went snorkeling for the first time and loved it, he's afraid, a little too much. He included an interesting take on some of the experience:

"The crew are as nice as I can imagine. Since so much is included most guests feel a certain amount of entitlement and it tends to translate into the way they manage problems with in your face demands and the crew just rolled with it. They managed problems with patience and relentless kindness."

I love how he bitches about the asshole-ness of the passengers by appreciating those who were its victims.

Entitlement is one of my hot buttons. It seems to me that more and more of the general population have rising expectations of what they are entitled to. Not what they earn but what should come to them because they breathe.

Or, worse yet, what they are entitled to because they did the dirty, got knocked up, and turned themselves into the automatic victim of single-motherhood. Yeah - I'm a bitch but just image how many societal problems would be solved by birth control?!

The only group I can think of who is entitled to at least some entitlement is teenagers. It's how they learn and it's a great way to learn but too many just never grow out of it. (I have a sister who has stretched her teenaged entitlement out nearly 40 years now.)

When I rule the world adults will be responsible for what they do and entitled to what they earn. The end.

Comments

[geordie.livejournal.com]

When I was a teen I was acutely aware that we didn't have money, my mother worried about being able to feed us and pay the bills, so I never felt entitled to anything. I never asked for anything. I accepted that if I wanted it I was going to need to get it myself. So I have an never ending supply of disdain for the entitled.

[susandennis]

I have an never ending supply of disdain for the entitled.

Me, too. It is hard being us in the "I deserve" world, isn't it?

[geordie.livejournal.com]

One day they will get what they really have coming :D

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

One summer, I had to try teaching non-required subject matter to kids who wouldn't listen unless I fed them breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One of them slept openly in class after announcing "no breakfast, no participation."

[susandennis]

I try not to judge children because I assume they are still simply parroting what their parents teach them or acting out because their parents have no control.

But, there are those - and your students sound like a batch - for whom I really wish there had been proper birth control.

[theryn.livejournal.com]

I feel compelled to share my favorite entitled customer story. It still irks me 4 years later.

We were doing a program at the museum in conjunction with the wild cat sanctuary. They brought in a baby tiger and set up a giant cage in the middle of the room. There were reservation required tickets for the performance and it was clearly indicated it was for three and up. If you didn't show up 30 minutes before start time you'd lose your ticket reservation. I generally held them to 15 minutes before as a courtesy and then distributed them to the many people waiting on stand-by. I had a young woman working as a nanny stroll in with a child under two at 5 minutes before start time. I explained that her ticket had been passed on but if she would wait nearby I would give her first crack at any more tickets that came available. I also advised her that it may not be age appropriate for the child. She took the child into the regular exhibits and did not come back to queue for a ticket. I assumed she decided against trying to keep an 18 month old quiet in a seat for that long.

The next morning I get to work and find all hell has broken loose from the mother of the child. The nanny reported that I told her she COULD NOT take the child into the program. The mother demanded a ticket for both her and her child (despite there not being any available) and received them under the customer is always right. When they arrived I apologized for any confusion and affirmed with her that there was a suggested age and that the child would be required to stay seated for safety sake for the entire program.

10 minutes after the program started she came strolling down with her child saying the kid couldn't sit still. I made some generic noises about that being why we put on age suggestions. She said, "Well it was worth a try." She screwed two people who would have enjoyed the program out of tickets and she had the gall to act like it was no big deal. I snuck an eighty year old couple in through the back door just to make myself feel better.

[susandennis]

Oh do not even get me started on the customer is always right bullshit. I've never worked in retail but I know from experience as a customer that the customer is NOT only not always right, the customer is RARELY right.

[susandennis]

I also love the women with 2, 3, 4 kids who, in retrospect, acknowledge that their marriage was a mistake from
the beginning.... smart move, then, for you to keep having kids.

Wouldn't it be wild to have to prove you will be good, responsible parents before you are allowed to spawn?

[susandennis]

Perfect.

[mixter11nm.livejournal.com]

You'll get my vote.