First World Problems

I hate to admit this, mostly because I hate that I'm actually feeling* this way, but I'm having a big problem with entitlement lately. Specifically, I'm having a tough time with several young adults who take for granted what their parents work so hard to provide for them. (And, I'm not even talking about every single college student I work with... because they're not back yet. When they are, though...)

I'm a first-generation college kid. When I was in high school and college, my mom worked three jobs. Yes, three.  3.  She never hid from us that she struggled to provide for us. I know she paid bills late. I know that she paid the orthodontist $20 a week for years so that we could have braces. I know I took her for granted. I tried to never ask for spending money, and when I was home from college in the summers, I had babysitting or tutoring gigs most of the time.

What kills me now are kids who don't do anything. Like at all. I'm thinking of the 20-year-old who doesn't have a job, lives at home, and does whatever he or she wants whenever he or she wants, like buying clothes, going out to eat, etc. I know kids like this, whose parents are a lot like mine, struggling to make ends meet. I don't understand the mentality that you never have to take any responsibility for anything. You don't want to work full-time? No problem. You're not going to finish college? Fine. 

I just don't have any patience for this right now. I just don't. And, this could be a problem when my students return with the same attitudes. Reminds me of the hashtags people do on Twitter: #firstworldproblems. I need to find a way to work out this frustration before I have a bad attitude with/at someone.

* One of the most valuable lessons I've learned while reading The Ethical Slut is that feelings themselves are neither good nor bad. The actions we take in response to those feelings are what's good or bad. In the case of the feelings discussed in the book, jealousy isn't a bad feeling. It's just a feeling. If you act negatively as a result of feeling that jealousy, that action is what's a problem. Sometimes, I learn stuff!