I agree op re personal responsibility or lack thereof. A lot of this I feel is down to bulldozer parents clearing the path ahead of all obstacles for their DC, instead of helping them navigate them.
A few examples I can think of:
Am not in the UK so I don’t know if there’s a similar set up there, but where I’m from we did ‘mock’ exams prior to the state ones- a few months ahead of the state ones, marks counted for nothing but it gave the students the opportunity to sit a paper under exam conditions, weed out mistakes re timing etc etc. Anyway, one friend of mine failed her history exam because she did badly on two of the sections and didn’t attempt the third at all. The third section was all about ancient civilisations. Her mother arrived in to the school literally shouting at the teacher that it had been an unfair exam... “how would she (the student) possibly know anything about Ancient Rome?!” Ehh, maybe because it’s on the curriculum and has been covered in class? But no, her precious DD (with no SEN, btw) hadn’t bothered studying adequately, yet it was an unfair exam.
My sister has a tendency to mollycoddle her son, now 21. About 2 years ago, we were all going to an outdoor event. The weather wasn’t great and it was expected to rain. He had left home without his coat. At this stage, we were all gathered in another family member’s house. The son was not particularly concerned, wasn’t making any attempt to sort out the situation and was idly looking at something online. My sister was fretting, asking family members if they had spare jackets, trying to find something that would fit and generally getting more stressed by the minute. She said in exasperation “when will you learn to bring your coat with you?” and she looked utterly shocked when I said he’d learn to do it when he had to deal with the consequences himself, instead of her sorting it out for him. She looked at me like I’d suggested clubbing a baby seal to death when I suggested he go to the event without a coat and end up getting wet if it rained. It would t be pleasant for him but it wouldn’t kill him and he would learn a lesson about preparing adequately for the weather. Sadly, she wouldn’t listen and sorted out spares for him, and is still picking up after his thoughtlessness 2 years later.
A junior colleague was late submitting his overtime claim form, so it didn’t get paid in the next pay period. His mother rang in berating the payroll officer, despite the fault being entirely her son’s.
Lastly, Irish posters will be familiar with a fairly high profile case from the last year or two. A politician called Maria Bailey was in a hotel on a girls night out. The hotel have a swing in an indoor area in the hotel, and loads of people pose on it for photos. Maria sat on it, after having a few drinks, and while holding a drink in each hand, therefore being unable to hold the swing properly. She then fell off. She submitted a personal injury claim, saying she had “severe injuries” and couldn’t run for 3 months afterwards. However, she was stupid enough to post on her social media a mere 3 weeks later about having completed a 10k run in time not far off her usual time. In her claim, she said there were no instructions and no supervision of the swing. A swing. Something two year old children can manage but this adult in a position of responsibility wanted instructions and supervision?? She was eventually pressured by her party to drop the claim, but not before she did a PR disaster of an interview on national radio. She has reared her head again in the last week or so, and still is blaming everyone and anyone except herself for what happened.