Are teenagers ready for real life?

Unfortunately, according to Mark Gregston of Parenting Today’s Teens, many are not. A major cause of this is the culture of entitlement many teens have been raised in.

A short time ago, a cellphone was a luxury. Now, from the teenager’s perspective, a cellphone is a necessity. Many teens suffer from a sense of entitlement that has only been fueled by their parents giving them everything, even luxuries.

“Mom and Dad are going to pay for college and everybody deserves a car.”

Many kids haven’t learned how to live without luxuries like cell-phones and cars. As a result they have fallen hard for the materialistic worldview.

“My dog lives better than most people in this world. I think our kids have an expectation level that because they are exposed to so many different things they’ve got to have what everybody else has.”

It’s okay to want a cell phone and a beautiful house, but we have to be willing to work for it. Many parents give their kids an allowance, but according to Mark, parents have it backwards.

“What we do is the older the child gets the more money we give and you know what we ought to be doing is giving them less. We should be weaning them away from us and encouraging them to get this thing called a job, nobody is above flipping burgers.”

Working entry jobs at fast food restaurants or mowing lawns is a good way to teach kids about the value of a dollar and how to work hard.

“The reason I had to make money was because if I wanted to have anything my mom and dad were not going to pay for it.”

If our children expect us to give them everything they need, they will expect the same from other adults in their lives like teachers or their boss.

“The measure of a man is not when everything is going well, it’s when it’s tough, it’s how you respond and they’re going to have to learn how to deal with somebody with opposing views and learn to get along.”

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