I just posted a few thoughts and then I happened to look at my post after it posted.....follow that so far? It occurred to me just how much kids have today. I mean, really, my kids have the world by it's ass. They aren't super spoiled, but they have it pretty damn easy.
Here's a rundown for you. Jason has a truck, that Scott and I paid for. He does pay for most of his insurance and his own gas but he's got a decent job. (That he got because I work there.) He has a verizon cell phone, which we pay for. It has unlimted Verizon to Verizon and unlimited text messaging.
I leave a list of chores for the kids on the days that I work. Most of the time, sometimes I forget. And if Jason is working the same day, he doesn't have to do additional chores. He is always responsible for feeding and watering the dog...that's it. Not a big deal.
Jourdan, well she doesn't have it so bad. Her chore (or household contribution, as Beth calls it) is to empty the dishwasher. That's it.
When I leave a list it's easy stuff....like take the laundry downstairs to the laundry room, vac the livingroom or sweep the kitchen floor. It's not hard manual labor, that's for sure.
The kids all have Dish Network in their rooms as well as DVD players. They have a family room to themselves downstairs...which they don't use. There is also a HP desktop computer down there with a nice HP Officejet. They also have a Gateway laptop that has wireless internet and wireless connection to the internet.
However, ask one of them to take out the garbage and it's like pulling teeth. I just don't get why kids think that they just deserve all these great things? I didn't have a TV in my room when I was growing up. I didn't have a phone in my room, let alone a cell phone. And a computer, what the hell would a teenager need a computer for back when I was a kid. I had a small transistor radio and a record player. Period.
Kids just have it too damn good today. Don't get me wrong, I want better for my kids than I had as a kid. I think that's normal. Parent's want better for their kids. I just don't think that they always appreciate the better things they have.
It's funny because I remember a really bad argument that I had with Paul not so long ago. I can't even remember what we were fighting about...we were on the phone and I remember him telling me, "you just want things to be better for your kids than you had it". But he was saying it in a very negative way. He was saying it as an insult. My response to him, "who fucking wouldn't?" Isn't that a typical parent deal? You want better for your kids? Not Paul.
Sorry, I got off track and if I keep talking about him, it'll turn into a real bitch-fest.
Back to the kids. I think kids today feel like they deserve all the shit that we give them. I'm not saying that I'm giving them money hand-over-fist. We don't have the money to do that. We aren't constantly buying them things, but they do have what they need. It's the other stuff. Like having satellite TV in their rooms and cell phones. Getting the right balance is really hard to do. I want to teach my kids ressponsibility, but I also want to let them have things. There is a fine line there and sometimes it becomes a little blurred for me.
Scott keeps me in check. Thank goodness. I tend to be a push-over. What can I say? I feel like things sucked when I was a kid....so I'm making up for that with my own kids. I know that things suck for Jason and Jourdan when they go over there....so I'm always trying to make up for that. That is probably my biggest driving force. I know things sucked so back for them at Pauls, and even though they don't go there very often anymore it's hard for me to stop.
So, I think my kids are probably a little spoiled. I'm sure they are more spoiled than some kids, and there are alot of kids who are much more spoiled. I'm hoping to find a happy medium! I guess that's all I can do.
You're right that kids today have it better than we did as kids. I remember that we first had cable television when I was about ten and the living room and my mom's/stepdad's bedroom had TV. None in our rooms until my sister and I were in our mid teens and then it was a TV with a dial and no cable box; just the cable wire to even make it work. There were boxes in my parent's room and in the living room.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't have a cell phone but did have a transistor radio, a record player and an 8-track player with tapes. How funny is that? I showed my kids a vinyl 45 a few months ago and they said, "Wow, Mom, that's a big CD."
We only got our first computer, as a family, when I was about 15 and it was a Commodore 64. Even today, I still have one desktop, no laptops in my house yet, haven't had the money. I'm the only one with a cell phone and it's a Tracfone that is only turned on when the kids are in school and I'm out of the house. The kids keep asking for phones because their friends have them but I don't see any reason for them to have phones; they're way too young.
I want them to have better than I did, and they do have TV in their rooms with cable boxes so they can watch kid programs on the higher channels, and a PS2 which they're only allowed to play once every couple of weeks after they read me a book. That's, pretty much, it, though, for now. I don't have the money to keep up with the Joneses.
Even when I can, my kids will be like yours and will have to earn and pay for part of what they get. There are no freebies in my home.