Privilege and Entitlement
Prompt
Talk about entitlement. Is it a right, a priviledge, or are you entitled to have your college education paid for by your parents? When it comes to working aroud the house, mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, doing laundry, is this your mother and or father’s job? Have an opinion, write about and respond to this from any point of view you like.
Response
I come from a very young, proud family. My mother was 16 and my father was 18 when I was conceived. We didn’t have much growing up but I was never aware of it. My parents shielded their children (myself and my little sister) from all of our hardships. As a child, I distinctly knew that anything I truly wanted, my family would provide; I also knew the price at which this gift would come. After I was born, my father joined the Navy which provided free/cheap housing for a seaman’s family. As a child, I recall my father working 3 jobs to support us; when I said I was still hungry, my parents would do without. I quickly learned to balance such love.
Throughout elementary and high school I wasn’t allowed to have even a part-time job. My parents placed full faith in education, stating that I needed to pay my own way through college with scholarships and grants. They would help where possible, but as they’ve always told me “nothing in life is guaranteed”.
While I rarely had a todo-type chore list, I was expected to help out when something needed done, such as hauling the trash to the dump (we don’t have much curbside service in Arkansas), washing the dishes, or cutting the grass. But I was never given too many chores or asked to do much (even though I thought I was at the time). Honestly, looking back I realize that I didn’t do nearly as much as I should have.
From the people I’ve known, the people with whom I was raised, the people I’ve met in college, I would have to wholeheartedly disagree with Rock-Richardson’s assessment that children today are lazier than in the past. Children are only as lazy as parents/adults allow them to be. From personal experience, when I go see my grandfather, I expect to work more so than when I’m with my parents. Go put out hay for the cattle, mend a broken part of a fence, change the belt on the tractor. (He owns a farm if you couldn’t tell.) Yet he was always right beside me, helping and guiding.
Any perceived laziness in children can only be traced to an inherent laziness in the parents. I know someone will ask “what about children whose parents work all the time? These children are often-times still lazy.” To this I’ll kindly point you back to the statement about my role models (parents, grandparents) being right beside me as I work. Children must learn work ethic from someone, it is not something with which people are born (disclaimer: I’m a strong nurture over nature supporter).
I don’t understand college students who believe they are entitled to anything; by the time my parents were my age (several years younger actually), they were already raising me; I like to think they did a good job :-)
Now that I’m enrolled in college, I do pay my own way as much as possible. After a series of failed startup companies (and a couple mild successes), my family is comfortable but I’ve already learned the pride behind supporting yourself. I have a part-time job working in a laboratory at Drexel that (in addition to the remnants of co-op salary) pays for my rent, bills, food, and “spending money”. I know that I can call on my family for financial support when necessary (and I have) but I try to keep this to a bare minimum. And everything they do provide / have provided while I’ve been in college is most certainly a privilege, but its more than that - its an investment in their child. They’ve never asked to be repayed for anything and never will, but I know what I owe them, and they know I’ll take care of them in their wizened years. That’s their entitlement.
