Monday, 02 March 2009
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My childs "tough" life
I really am not a raging old crow (shut up, April), but this has been bothering me for a few weeks and I thought I would run it by you guys. All my kids seem to be growing up with this sense of the whole world owes them something simply because they have blessed us with their presence. I am here to tell you that the world owes me something for putting up with them. Just kidding, but below is my story.
For the past few weekends, we have had an ongoing problem with the children falling asleep with their televisions still on. I hate paying high electric bills and in an effort to curb the problem I informed them all that the next time that happened, the televisions would have to be turned off at 7 pm on the weekend. This way, there was no chance of accidentally falling asleep with it on. That worked for two weekends. Saturday I woke up around midnight. I could hear a television on somewhere so I went to figure out who the offender was. I turned off the offending television and went back to bed. The following morning I addressed the issue with the child in question and let them know that for that night the tv would be off at 7. This was not meant as a punishment per se, it was more a gentle reminder that electricity cost money and we should all do our part to keep the cost down.
This is where it got fun. For the next hour I had to listen to just how hard this child's life was. The poor thing was being forced to turn off the rather large flat screen television two hours earlier than normal. What ever was the child supposed to do for those dreaded two hours? Apparently, the nintendo ds, the psp, the ps2, and the ipod touch were just not worthy and the poor child was just so abused and mistreated. I mean, seriously...a hard life?
Now, this is not the only child in the house with this sense of the world owes them something. I will admit that most of them seem to feel this way and I am at my wits end to rectify this situation.
I have decided that a dose of reality is in order for all the kids. I am researching volunteering at a local homeless shelter during their Spring Break. San Diego has a huge homeless problem with many of those on the streets being children in the same age range as mine. Perhaps seeing peers that not only do not have a tv in their room, but have no room, might be the wake up call necessary for them to appreciate that their lives are a walk in the park.
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Comments (8)
There is something about children these days, not sure what's up with it. But I think your Spring Break idea sounds wonderful, and might just give them a taste of reality. Especially in this troubled economy, it could happen to anyone. Good luck!
Hahahahaha. I LOVE this post. =) Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers.
That is an awesome idea! I wish I could take all my English classes and do the same thing. There is such a huge sense of entitlement with this crowd. I can't wait to hear about your trip and see how the children fared!
My son falls asleep with the TV on, too, but we turn it off for him. Things like leaving a light on when you aren't in the room bug me, so I started making my son fork over his own money to "pay for the electricity". Its his choice to leave it on, but I'm not paying for it. It has worked well. Really, he only needs a reminder from time to time to turn off the bathroom light. And I cut him a little slack when its dark because he's afraid. I also bought some CFL bulbs, so it helps.
Love the shelter idea!!
Great idea for spring break. Please let us know how it turns out. Does the tv in question have a sleep timer on it? That might help with getting it turned off. Set it for an hour or two, and then even if they fall asleep, the tv will turn itself off. The older kids should be able to set it themselves, and then they can be in charge of making sure it is set each night, just in case they fall asleep. Which doesn't help with the entitlement problem, I guess, but might cut down on the electricity bill.
Oh I so want to hear how that goes over!! During christmas 2 yrs ago I made my oldest pick out 4 of her own toys that were in good condition to give to a family that had nothing....Yeah it worked for awhile but I think I need to do something like that again. See you have given me ideas..... dealing with the same issues here!
Here is the thing that gets me - its not like the only tv in the house has to be off by 7 pm...
I have seen the entitlement problem a lot. Not only in kids, though. I know plenty of people in thier mid-20's that are the same way!
I hope the spring break idea works out.
Wow if I would have ranted on about how "hard" my life was when I was younger... my mom would have let me have it. Not saying she would have smacked me but she would have sat me down and told me about how she grew up (moving out of her mom's house at the age of 13 and having a job from that point in her life until then). Yeah, we heard a lot about that so there was no ranting on how hard our life was, if we thought it was. I mean, I know I didn't grow up with the best toys, and I did think some things were unfair, but I can look back on them and understand them and understand that my parents were doing the best that they could at the time.
I think the Spring Break idea would be great... and if they still want to rant on how hard life is... just take the tv out of their room and just give them their essential needs (bed, clothes, etc...). That may show them. Let them live like that for a month and see how much they complain about having to shut off their nice tv at 7pm. Gah. Some kids nowadays.