Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Give It to Me NOW!


This isn't my usual type of blog entry, but once in a while you get so worked up about something you have to vent. An online acquaintance calls them rants, and eloquently blogs them daily. Well here's my rant, thanks to Grant (who sent the story).

A 27-year-old woman--let's call her Veruca -- is suing her alma mater for $72,000 (cost of tuition and "stress") because she cannot find a job. After three whole months of trying! She graduated waaayyy back in April from New York's Monroe College with a bachelors degree in business administration in information technology. With a 2.7 GPA! She claims the college's career placement office isn't promoting her as hard as their graduates who managed to pull something higher than a mid-level C throughout their four years at school. (As if just meeting her would get potential employers to overlook her shoddy GPA and more qualified applicants) And she's encouraging other graduates who have yet to find work to start suing as well.

"It doesn't make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald's and Payless. That's not what they planned," says the genius.

OK, here's where I start to blow. This is so much of what's wrong with this generation (not that I'm old enough to be a generation beyond them ---shut up). Too many people have been raised to feel that they are entitled to everything. Sure she went to college. But that doesn't entitle her to a job. So did millions of other folks out there, who maybe spent a little less time with the funnel and a little more with the books. So did millions of other folks who have been working for years, decades even, who now have to compete again for a job thanks to layoffs and Bush's legacy. But this gal is entitled to a job. And if the college isn't going to hand her one (after all...it's been three whole months!), she's entitled to be reimbursed for her time and her stress.

This is just an extreme case, but you see this crap all the time and nothing boils my blood more. Parents who suffer from "Best Friend Syndrome" are raising kids who suffer from "I'm Owed Disease." I see the young versions in my kids' school all time. Kids who behave abominably, and when they're called on it by teachers/principals/chaperones/volunteers, their parents either say "Oh, no! It couldn't have been my child!" Or worse yet, "Who the hell do you think you are to even dare speak to my child!"

Well folks if you said "No" to your kids once in a while, if you taught them the value of a dollar and hard work, if you showed them that they need to respect others/rules/diversity then they wouldn't grow into grubby leeches and hangers-on who think that things should just come to them, like the inspiration for this blog item. "Best Friend" parents will eventually, and sadly too late, see the error of their ways when the time comes for them to need help from said leeches. Good luck getting Miss Litigious to take you in, Mom and Dad! But Veruca will be happy to sue you for the stress your old age has put upon her. Phew! I'm done!

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment. I'd love to hear your stories!

No comments: