Entitled? Probably . . . And That’s The Problem

When Lorraine and I entered the donut shop late in the morning, the donuts were quite depleted. We made our selection from what was left and sat down at a table to do some work. A while later the manager came to the swinging door behind the counter and started to talk to me.

“Young people from 16 to 25 don’t want to work,” he said. “My baker hadn’t showed up and I just called him.

He said, ‘I was just about to call you. I don’t feel like working today.’”

The manager was upset. He said, “I’m the only one here. I have to do it all.” Obviously the shop was just about out of donuts, so in addition to waiting on all the customers, he had to try to get to the back and make more donuts.

So, this is what happens in the real world now. If you’re wondering why customer service is so poor, it’s because kids like his baker call in and say, “I don’t feel like working today.”

Why is there a shortage of workers? Young people don’t have a sense of responsibility and they don’t have a good work ethic. Why?

It’s not rocket science. It started in the early seventies when we Americans suddenly had an accelerated appetite for more stuff. Bigger homes, newer cars, the latest clothes in fashion, and toys like boats, four-wheelers, and in the later years side by sides, big screen TV’s and anything else that may tickle our fancies.

As one frustrated wife said to me, “He who has the most toys wins!”

To fill our appetites for more “stuff,” we sent Mom to work . . . and left our kids at home to raise themselves. About seventy percent of mothers work outside of the home. When the trend started, we didn’t need two incomes to live comfortably, we just wanted more.

Then the providers of goods and services noticed the trend and they raised their prices on nearly everything. In essence they said, “Americans have more money now, so we can raise our prices. And they did.

When the economy adjusted it became difficult to make it on one income, so the two income family became the norm.

The lust for materialism consumed us . . . and our kids suffered. They became entitled and lazy, spending two much time in front of screens . . . computer game screens, television screens, and smart phone screens.

I remember distinctly, the grandmother in the coffee shop who complained to me that she couldn’t get through to her granddaughter. The granddaughter was standing right there and she piped up that she had sent 400 texts the day before. Then quickly, to justify her behavior, she said, “But I’m and A student. That made it okay, I guess.

So, what we are experiencing now, with our the younger generation not wanting to work, is a result of sewing and reaping. The law of sowing and reaping is a prominent theme of the Bible. “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galations 6:7 NKJV).”

When parents spent all day working and came home exhausted, they began to feel guilt that they had so little time for their children. So, what did they do? They threw money at them. What did the children learn. “Why should I work when Mom and Dad will give me all the money I need?” So they don’t. They don’t want to work much, and they don’t have a work ethic. Some frustrated adult employers call them “the entitled generation.”

I’m not talking about all young people, of course. Many young people are excellent workers and excellent citizens.

In my first marriage, Nancy and I decided that our three children should not be alone at home before school or after school. Though it was really hard, we managed to arrange our work schedules so that one of us could be home with them before they left for school and when they returned home from school.

Due to this decision, we didn’t have a lot of money. We had to stretch our finances any way we could. At one point, oversized sweatshirts with name brands on them were the rave at school among the students. I found a place that was selling these sweatshirts for $5 each and we bought a bunch. The kids wore them interchangeably. All three of them could wear the same sweatshirt and so they just rotated the merchandise. They were fine. They were “in style.”

At one point, Peter needed a new pair of tennis shoes. On a Saturday, we hit all the stores and were able to find a pair of “air Jordans” in his size for $30. They had originally been over $100.

These are the kind of things we did to make it all work. I don’t think our kids felt depraved as they were growing up. The two older girls were honor students. All of our kids had an abundance of friends . . . at times we thought too many friends. Our little house sometimes resembled a revolving door of “kids” traffic. On one occasion the mob in our yard was so large I became worried. I went out and chased some of them home.

Our quest to be at home with our kids forced us to work crazy hours. At one time I had three part time jobs. Was it worth it? You had better believe it was. Today all three of our children are excellent workers and they make very good money.

When they were old enough they were required to have jobs. When they were old enough to drive our cars, they were required to buy their own gas. We were teaching them responsibility.

When Peter, our youngest, graduated and went to UTI technical school in Chicago, training to be an auto technician, the work requirements continued. Early on, he got a seasonal job before Christmas, which was discontinued after Christmas. Things got pretty hard for him financially, and I wasn’t able to help him much. During a conversation on the phone, I said to him, “Peter, you have to get a job.”

Meanwhile, my father called and said he had $300 to send Peter. I said, “Wait on that a bit. Let him sweat a little.”

Well, on the next call, Peter had found a job . . .  forty hours a week at a Ford Dealer. His everyday routine then was to get up at 5 a.m. go to school all morning and work at the Ford Dealer all afternoon into the early evening. When I visited the Ford Dealership later on, the personnel remarked to me what a “nice boy” Peter was.

After he secured the job, I called my Dad and told him it was okay to send the $300.

Probably many parents today would say that I was to too hard on Peter, but if you asked him today, he wouldn’t think that I was. Rather, he took on responsibility and developed an excellent work ethic. At every job he has had, he as excelled and for the most part he enjoys his work. For the early years of his two boys growing up, now 4 and 6, he has been able to provide for the family with Kate being a stay-at-home Mom. His salary has been such that they are presently looking for a larger home.

Contrast that with the boy who called into the donut shop today and told his manager he didn’t feel like working and was going to stay home.

Who is at fault? His parents. He isn’t working today because he doesn’t have to . . . and that is the problem with this younger “entitled” generation.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 NKJV says, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”

Photograph designed and taken by Lorraine