Parents
in the newer generation are way too lenient on their kids and they spoil them
way too much. This is not to say that every single parent spoils their child,
but more children are being spoiled in this generation than they were when I
was a kid (Born in 1994). I recently had relatives come over who stayed the
night with their two children. One is thirteen, an eighth grader, and the other
was ten years old, meaning that he would be finishing up the fifth grade this
June. The thirteen year has a 32gb iPod Touch, wants a $3000 Apple Mac Book
Pro, and an iPhone 5 for his upcoming birthday. Now I understand that when one
enters high school, they will need a laptop to create Powerpoint Presentations,
write up labs and short papers, and type up review questions for class, at
least that's what I did as a freshmen in high school. The request of a $3000
Mac Book Pro is just simply preposterous, especially for a thirteen year old. This
thirteen year old isn't playing hardcore games that require an expensive
graphics card or sixteen gigabytes of Ram. He isn't recording music either and
therefore doesn't need the high quality sound card nor the RAM. He would not
have a single reasonable excuse as to why he would need 512GB of solid state
space AND 16GB RAM. I am a firm believer that people buy technology that is so
advanced and unnecessary that they don't know what it all does. Many people I
know don't even know how to copy and paste a file, or install a program. When I
was his age, (Wow, how old do I sound...), I had a Dell Inspiron E1705 which
had a 17.5 inch screen, 1 Gigabyte of RAM, and
128 Gigabyte of Hard Drive Space. I got this laptop in the seventh
grade, and it lasted me all the way into the beginning of 2012, when I replaced
with my current HP DV6. That 1Gb RAM laptop was able to take care of all of my
powerpoints, papers, spreadsheets, and even a little bit of movie editing and
montage making my junior year.
The thirteen year old confessed
to me that the reason he wanted the iPhone 5 was because all of his friends
have it, and that he wanted to have one so that he could fit in. His parents
told me he has no problems fitting in, and no one bullies him, so why is there
a need to buy this super high- tech phone. I had a flip phone for 6 straight
years (2006-2012) and it only made phone calls. I only recently swapped in the
old flip for a Samsung Galaxy S III, but I paid for it with my own money. I
don't think the kid understands that the phone, plus the data plan he wants as
well as the texting, will put a serious dent in his parent's pockets. His
younger brother is starting to take after him as well, and wants the most
recent iPad with the retina display. What does a ten year old need a five
hundred dollar tablet for? The father said that he was considering purchasing
these items for his kids, which frightened me even more than the kids actually
asking for it. Freshmen in high school can suffice with a four hundred dollar
4GB Ram 500Gb hard drive HP or Dell or a lower end model with an i5 or even an
i3 processor. They aren't going to be running numerous applications, and Google
Chrome will probably be the only application they run that will take up all of
the RAM. When I wanted to get something that big, I had to get straight A's for
a full year for my parents to even consider purchasing it. These kids want all
of the new technology, and they probably won't even know how to operate half of
it. Instead of getting an iPhone 5s, I'd rather get the iPhone 4 for free, or
even a Droid that is free, if I wanted a smart phone that is. It sickens me and
horrifies me that kids now a days are spoiled so much and given so many high
tech gadgets. I recall my high school Physics teacher mentioning that one of
her cousins gave her niece an iPad for her fifth birthday. HER FIFTH BIRTHDAY. I
got a tickle me elmo toy for my fifth birthday and I loved that toy to pieces.
I see these kids in elementary schools with cell phones and Xbox 360's and it
just makes me wonder why these parents cave into their kids.
In my opinion, the worst thing a
parent can do for their kid is spoil them because then they will expect
everything to be handed to them without any effort or hard work. I remember
when I was in third grade, I had to stay on my best behavior when visiting
relatives and had to maintain good grades in order for me to get Pokemon Coliseum
and even then, I could only play for two hours week and only on Fridays. I
maybe got three games a year, and I sure as hell had to make do with those
three games. Even when relatives would give me $5 as a kid for doing work
around their house, my mother would take the money and put it in my bank. I
wouldn't even see the $5 bill. These kids should be working for their rewards.
They should be vacuuming or cleaning their room at the very least. They should
stop giving their parents a damn attitude every five minutes when all their
parents are asking is for them to come to dinner. They want you to bed fed.
There's people on the streets that would love be yelled at and requested their
presence be there at the dinner table. Even though I am an only child, I would
never want to be spoiled to the point where I got everything I wanted. I
remember once I reached my sophomore year, I stopped "asking" for things
unless it was the one Halo game, or a random trinket here or there. I try to
earn what I buy and save up for it because in the end, I'll know it's mine and
that I worked for it. I didn't just beg my parents to get me the latest phone
or anything of the sort, I worked my butt off to get the money to buy the phone
itself and then try to somehow make $30 a month for the data since I don't have
a job.
Some of these parents need to
get an honest hold on their kids and explain to them that they can't get what
they want. Just because someone wants something doesn't mean they need it. And
if they really want it that bad, if they can't live a damn day without... well
then work for it. Both the parents and the child will feel better in the long
run.
