Thursday, July 29, 2010

Some Lessons I Have Learned...

I could have gone funny with these with things like "Never play leap frog with a unicorn" or "don't put your money where your mouth is - you don't know where it's been..."  But that's definitely not the way I went...  Sorry for the rant, but it was needed...........

Warning – some of these may not be popular opinion (especially the first one), but they are mine...

Okay... Some lessons I have learned...

- That the word “illegal” no longer means anything if followed by the word immigration. I have absolutely no problem with immigration. But do it right.

- That if I were to pop out a litter, people would give me free crap and a tv show. One or two at a time obviously isn’t special in this world anymore...

- That I don’t need to pay my mortgage. All I have to do is cause a big scene and get the news involved with some sob story and I’ll get to keep my house anyway.

- That I can rack up as much debt as humanly possible and not pay it back. According to a commercial I hear frequently, if I have more than $10,000 in debt, I have the RIGHT to settle it for far less than that.

- That if I complain enough, people will give me whatever I want in order to shut me up. Like the woman in my office that complained about the new radio station we’ve been listening to enough to get it switched back to the one that everyone else hates.

- That if I am bad enough at my job, people will just start by-passing me completely and dumping my responsibilities on people who are efficient and too polite and hardworking to say “no.”

- That it’s perfectly acceptable to blow through stop signs, go through crosswalks while people are still in them, and speed as long as my car happens to be black and white with a light bar on the top.

- Also that I can blow through stop signs if I am a parent dropping their child off at summer school and am in way too much of a hurry to get to work to be able to realize that the people coming down the main street have the right of way.

- That if I hurt myself in some way - it is no longer my fault, but the fault of the person that sold me the thing I hurt myself with or that owns the place where I hurt myself.

Basically, it’s all about personal accountability and being a responsible human being... Everyone is so busy holding their hands out and expecting the world to give them everything that they don’t take the time to do the right thing. When all the “housing crisis” insanity was going on here in California, J called our mortgage lender out of curiosity to see about all the nice breaks that they were offering... And he was told that because we are current and always make our payment (plus extra!) that they couldn’t do anything for us. We would have had to have been at least six months behind in order for them to be willing to do anything.  What the what what?  We would have to be completely irresponsible in order to be rewarded?

There is a serious problem today with this way overblown sense of entitlement. Just watch the audition episodes of American Idol. I will never forget the 16 year old boy a couple seasons back... When told that he couldn’t sing and would not be going to Hollywood, the tears and bleeping began. The line that stuck with me was along the lines of: “I wanted to be famous by now.”

Umm... Kid? Come here and take seat with Auntie Kelly for a minute, mmkay? You are 16, have no discernible talent, and have done nothing to try to become famous. If you want to do something, you have to be willing to try more than playing World of Warcraft all day and going to one audition for a television show that is on a downward spiral... Now wipe those tears, go to school, apologize to your mother for shoving her away and swearing at her when she tried to comfort you...

Actually, hold on – Mom, can you come here for a second? Ok. Please stop reinforcing this behavior... When your son shoves you away and curses at you, don’t tell him that he “will be famous! They don’t know what they are talking about!” It’s not true. You know it, I know it, and now America knows it... Take your son home, wash his mouth out with soap, make him do his homework, and teach him how to work for the things he wants.

Woah – tangent. Sorry.

Where was I???

Oh, right... Look, I get that it sucks to have to be responsible. I certainly didn’t sign up for this whole “grown-up” thing. But it’s what happens... And if you break the law, you should be punished. If you sign a contract, then you should follow through. If you leave an unsecured loaded gun in your backseat and your 2-year-old grabs it and shoots you, you pretty much deserve it.  It's not the gun manufacturer's fault. (And you are really lucky that you were the one that was shot and not the 2-year-old.)  And if you buy a bunch of stuff using your credit cards, pay it back! Nothing is free, people! No one owes you anything.



I feel like I should be doing some of that “Mel Gibson” deep breathing from his phone calls... haha

I’ll hop down off my soap box now...

15 comments:

  1. OMG!!!! You have summed up a lot of what I personally feel. I work as a teacher. Oh dear God, it sure isnt the parents fault their kids arent excelling in school or life. It is mine. Not that these spoiled brats, have this lesson and that lesson and every electronic gizmo on the fricken block without even working for it. I get myself in trouble with whiny kids in stores, esp when their parents quickly give then what they want. I "just have to say SOMETHING!!!" Come on what happened to chores and allowance???

    The same goes for the staff in my classroom. This year, I had 2 spoiled brat women who did not get a degree in teaching thinking they "know it all." They felt entitled to teach what they wanted, not follow behavior plans, making the kids worse and of course, run to the principal and complain about how I can not run my classroom. One lady didnt like being referred as "staff," and I was told by the principal to not use the offensive word. OMG!!! It says 'STAFF' on our ID badges. That woman also said to some one she was educated, then if you are educated why are in working in a special ed classroom wiping asses for a living????? The other gal felt she needed to tell me on a regular bases "HOW TO DO MY JOB" dealing with the kids!!!! Neither wanted to take responsibility for what they did.... though they seemed to think it was coffe and chat time, rather then work... Fun!!!

    This entitlement thing is out of control... Thanks for a great post!!!!

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  2. :::CHEERS:::

    Could we get this posted on the yahoo, msn, igoogle, safari home, aol, etc..etc..etc..home pages please?!!!

    TOTALLY agree with you! I am sick and tired of kids and adults alike who think the world owes it to them. I currently have a young lady I've been trying to mentor who was adopted, and for whatever reason thinks that because her biological mother did her a favor and placed her with a loving family instead of keeping her in a crack house - the world owes her everything.

    Ugh...I digress...

    I agree with your statement : "What the what what?"

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  3. Thanks for the comments! I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing the problem!! :-)

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  4. Yikes! You really did RANT. I don't blame you, though....and happen to agree with you, as well. It's that sense of entitlement...that makes me crazy.

    My ex is one of those squeaky-wheel people. He's like a pit bull...will be such a PITA till he gets what he wants...then he just disappears. It's sad but people like this are given what they want so they'll GO AWAY.

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  5. Ditto! Ditto! Ditto! I'm just wondering when my kids are going to realize that they don't even need to learn to read - because - well, apparently our president, the congress and all those people against the Arizona bill didn't read the bill. They didn't read the health care bill, either - I was agog, "We have to pass it to find out what's in it." What's up with that?
    To lead our awesome country now comes with a mandatory, "Cannot Read" skill set.
    Loved your Rant! Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! I am so stinkin' glad I can read:)

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  6. It's just getting ridiculous... They are even changing the English language to dumb it down... It is now acceptable to say things like "I taked a test" instead of "I took a test" because it removes an exception to one of the rules that makes it "too confusing"

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  7. Amen! you sure nailed it in this post! Sooooo much truth! Just stopped by from SITS to say hi; hope you will find time to do the same.

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  8. I think I love you. Personal accountability is really hard to find these days. Where did it go?

    ...stopping by from SITS...

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  9. Thanks for stopping by!! :-) Mrs. Gloves - I really wish I knew......

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  10. The phrase preaching to the choir comes to mind--Amen!!!

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  11. Stopping from SITS! This holds many truths.

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  12. Can I getta HELLS YA and an AMEN!!

    I hear ya, preach on preacher!! (I have no more words left)...Have a great day!!
    Danon

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  13. I'm loving the comments :-) I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling it....

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  14. It's funny, I was thinking the same thing when I was in the shower and heard those commercials the other day.

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How do I love comments? Let me count the ways.....

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