“Why can’t you get me an iPhone or at least the Rumor LG? The cell phone I have is crappy,” complains my Millennial child. I respond with, “One reason might be the crappy phone in your hand is the 6th one you’ve had in 3 years. And the $300 slider cell we bought you lasted 7 months.” “But I don’t see why you won’t upgrade my cell,” whines my charge.
And there I sat; my mouth agape and my blood boiling while the pounding of my temples echoed in my ears. I looked at the wall wondering if banging my head against it would have been a better use of my time. Thus ended another useless discussion with my son highlighting his irresponsible behavior as the reason behind his “crappy” cell phone crisis.
This situation is probably played out all over the continent. It’s not just a child-of-divorce problem. It is; however, exacerbated by the “Disneyland Dad” who packed every minute they had their kids with fun-filled adventures, dinners out and presents. Basic discipline probably fell by the wayside. There is a high cost for giving the kids this false sense of reality. Children start to equate being loved with receiving special gifts, unique experiences, and following fewer rules. Their mantra becomes, “it’s all about me.”
I’ll give you the synopsis definition of a “Millennial” on the off chance that you don’t know what it is. Millennials are the offspring of Boomer parents; often overindulgent, overly involved parent(s). These children have been nurtured to have unrealistic expectations coupled with a “my way or the highway attitude.” They are tech savvy having grown up with Instant Messaging, cell phones, laptops, chat rooms, Xbox’s, PSP’s, online games etc. Corporations have hired people to prepare them to deal with this new cohort that is entering the workforce. And the mere thought of overseeing an entire department filled with Millennials makes me reach for my bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol.
My son’s cell phone is not “crappy,” it’s just not one of the new techie toys with all the bells and whistles. It’s a cell phone with a camera but no special keyboard for texting. It was my phone which I traded him because the only back-up cell we had was his sister’s old one --- a 4 year old little silver model and it couldn’t send text messages for some reason. I took that one and gave my son mine. The little silver phone was cool.
I was perfectly happy with the little silver phone until one morning it was on but was continually looking for service and never found any. Of course Murphy’s Law had me traveling that day. The first time in my life I had a tire blow it had to be in the middle of no-where-land on the day I had no cell. The only words I can think of to describe that day are expletives so please let your mind fill them in with everyone you can think of. You can make some up; I’m sure I did.
His father and I decided to use the day’s experiences to remind my son that a cell is not a toy. The reason he has a cell is for his dad’s and my convenience and his security; everything else is a privilege for him.
I described the details of my daunting day and tried to use it to teach a lesson. His father reinforced the cell phone lesson and it wasn’t 5 minutes later that my Millennial wanted to know if he was getting an upgrade to his phone since I was. Ugh!
Give me a double cream, triple brandy, toffee, choco latte, please: with sprinkles DAMN IT!
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Just stumbled upon your blog and can relate to your problems. We found a unique solution to dealing with entitlement and that was to move to Belize for a year. A little radical perhaps, but it worked for our 3 sons and my husband and I.
ReplyDelete@GutsyWriter
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. Sometimes it takes something radical to have an effect and make the change permanent.
I checked out your blog and noticed you have a book coming out. Congrats! And I look forward to reading it.