Where is this trend of selfishness and entitlement going to end?

[INACGMOOH]

I've noticed more and more instances of people being rude, selfish and entitled being written about on here and on other social media. Examples include: people talking loudly / eating Pringles in theatre performances, people having TVs / music on loudly in shared wards in hospitals, people ignoring the highway code etc. In my work (teaching) I have seen an increase in parents get more and more demanding and entitled (e.g. refusing to provide school uniform, getting the school to change their procedures to suit them, arguing that they don't need to hear their children read etc).

It seems that as a society we have moved to become more selfish and less considerate.

Moving forward I can see that it's likely to get worse before it gets better. What can we do to try and reverse this trend?

I have seen an increase in parents get more and more demanding and entitled (e.g. refusing to provide school uniform

Depends on your perspective. Some schools expect parents to spend an extortionate amount of money on school uniform, which can be out of the reach of some parents. And whilst there are options like second hand uniform etc, I'm not sure it is demanding and entitled to refuse to provide uniform IF it is extortionate priced.

The only person's behaviour I can change is my own. And my children's behaviour by modelling good behaviour, and discussing and analysing less desirable behaviour with them, with a view to alternative behaviours in the future.

I refuse to become one of those people who take it upon themselves to attempt to monitor and police others behaviour because it is not in accordance with what I deem acceptable. Unless it is truly anti-social and unacceptable. Pringles isn't there.

Well, Op, I wouldn’t hold your breath, since the first response you have got is someone telling you they are justified in arguing about the uniform rules!

It will be reversed when there are no free public services, because people like you who supply them will all be working in the private sector. Of course there may be entitled behaviour amongst customers there, but it is kept within the bounds of impacting on overall benefit, because other paying customers won’t have it.

But how is parents not being able to afford school uniform not justification for arguing about it?

And having worked in both retail and call centres I'm not sure where you get the impression that private sector workers come in against less entitled behaviour. although I don't think the OPs point was about private vs public sector anyway

People have no reason to want to change. They get away with their behaviour and no one is there to hold them to account.

Some parents at my dc school are ridiculous for this kind of thing, they can't just see the bigger picture and fall in line about anything. It's a very us vs the teacher attitude.

Too much homework
Homework is too hard
Teacher took their child's notepad off them at school so they can't practise their spellings (wtf? Use a different piece of paper?)
Uniform rules are too complicated
Too many activities to attend
Making snide remarks about the teacher on the class WhatsApp group
Taking pride in how little reading they can get away with doing with their child.
Being proud of how 'scatty' they are - oh I sent x in without their lunch today hahaha what am I like!

Honestly they sound like a bunch of teenagers, it's absolutely depressing.

When I say uniform, I mean wellies. So we can let the play outside when the field is muddy and go to forest school. I'm not asking for a blazer here.

I guess we all think we are customers these days, and that makes us kings. Or something.

It's being bred into the next generation ime.. Cost me £20 to see ds singing in the school choir alongside the nativity.. The df behind me had cartoons on his phone - with sound - for his dd the whole 30 mins.
Different df had his phone on for his ds in church the day after.
Absolutely no excuse imo.
Except as use as Tech Parenting..

Yes, we should go back to the good old days where everyone was just really lovely and selfless

This is just a modern version of a human behaviour. There have always been cunts, just now it is a bit less violent.

If that is the case, then why are there so many more threads on here and on other SM platforms describing the behaviours I refer to? There hardly used to be any on MN and now the CF moniker is seen everyday.

@Hopeyoursproutsarealreadyon please tell me you didn't have to pay to watch the school Christmas concert? That really is a new form of parenting hell. And £20 too, wowsers.

😂QED

From what I hear in the private sector it's worse! People work hard for their money and expect bang for their buck, which is fine but don't be a dick about it.

As I pointed out to my mother when she was singing a similar lament, entitlement is not limited to any one age group or generation. Entitled children become entitled adults and then entitled older adults , and then entitled old people.

Maybe the real change is an increased tendency to notice and moan about everything?

I do think the noise tech makes is pretty annoying, but in my day people smoked on the top deck of the bus.

No, general levels of violence have dropped, it is much less common for people to just randomly assault people.

Wife beating is now illegal for example, people hit their kids far less than they used to.

Yay neoliberalism where all that matters is the individual And their illusion of what freedom is.

I provide a service, and have a waiting list. I often get "that's ridiculous" "well we need it now". But also, "I'm not paying that."

I agree OP and it will get worse until there are less of us.

WRT illegal activity that's not really what I'm referring to here. It's more the incidences of everyday selfishness that impact other people.

yep,I know someone who moaned about the school trips not being good enough but apparently her kids school have a policy of asking parents to pay what they can up to a tenner and I learnt that she didn’t pay a penny.

She has 4 kids but didn’t seem to know that teachers worked hard and had long hours 🙄 plus she seems to expect Instant responses to her emails she sends to class teachers