How to Fight Entitlement with Gratitude

My kids, who are now young adults, have occasionally given me a hard time about not allowing them to watch certain movies or TV shows when they were growing up. Too much violence? Too much bad language? Nope. Too much entitlement.

It’s true. In my opinion, the entitlement attitudes portrayed in many kids’ shows can be even more dangerous than the violence portrayed. Even if the motivation behind the script writing is to portray an over-the-top self-centered attitude in order to show how terrible it is, our kids don’t always have the maturity to make that discernment for themselves. They just see a kid on the screen who is often getting his own way and is getting lots of laughs and attention for it. Whether or not the intention is to make entitlement look cool and fun for kids, that’s what seems to happen.

So, yes, there were certain shows I didn’t let my kids watch when they were little. Or if we did watch them together, I would at least acknowledge to my children what I was seeing in those characters on the screen, and I invited their input, as well. I believe this helped my children learn to practice some of their own discernment.

Why was this aspect such a big deal to my husband and me?…  [Read the rest of the article on The Uncommon Normal website.]