Entitlement?

Please bear with me as I wear the hat of a disgruntled father for a moment. I do not intend this post to be a complaint or a venting of anger, but rather a commentary on the state of society.

Tonight we had swim lessons with the girls. Ab was swimming with Sylvia on one end of the pool and I was observing Olivia at another. Olivia's lesson was going well, she was having fun and practicing her skills. There was, however, a particularly "strong willed" boy in her class that was giving Olivia a hard time. His actions were innocent enough, he began by splashing her. "Typical pool behavior." I thought to myself. Olivia was clearly bothered by this and told the boy to stop. He responded by yelling at her and telling her to "shut up." Okay, no harm in this, Olivia needs to learn how to handle difficult people and she's doing a good job. The boy now decided he was not finished with Olivia. He sat beside her at the edge of the pool and began slapping her and hitting her on the head.

Side note: Where were his parents? You may be asking. His mother was not paying attention to her son. I'm also sure that the high school students that are the instructors are not prepared to handle toddler discipline.

So as Olivia began to wail, the father/teacher in me stepped in and had a word with the boy in question. About this time someone must have alerted the boy's mother and she intervened. The boy was indignant to his mother's attempt at correction. The event did, however, prompt her to pay closer attention to her son. This, unfortunately, did not act as an adequate deterrent to her son.

For reasons unknown to me, this boy felt compelled to display his dislike for my daughter one last time, in the clear presence of myself and his mother. He decided to take a big gulp of pool water and spit it in Olivia's face.

His mother's response was an empty threat of "time out;" it was actually more of a question to see whether or not the boy would like one. I suggested to the mother that the boy be removed. She ignored me. I'm sure she could sense my intense stare and she turned to me as if to question why I was still looking at her. I asked her if she was going to do something about this. Her response is my sole purpose for this post. If she would have reacted in any other way I would have dismissed this whole event. I would have chalked it up to kids being kids and these are the facts of life. But no, her response disturbed me.

She responded, "Doesn't he have the right to be in swim lessons?"

In the face of her child's blatant disrespect of a peer, an adult, AND her, she responds how? With swift correction? With an apology? With ANY action of atonement? No. Her reaction is that of entitlement. She felt that regardless of the actions of her child that he had the RIGHT to be there and under no circumstances will he be removed. What does this teach the child? It teaches them ENTITLEMENT. This can be a very dangerous thing to teach a child, and it is painful for me to witness. We need to hold our children accountable for their actions and teach them respect for others. We cannot always make excuses for them. I pray for this mother and all other parents that we find the strength, wisdom, and courage to do what is right for our children.

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds.... Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deuteronomy 11:18-19