Some people with children are entitled?

[SayonAraHalo]

Named changed for this as it might be slightly outing, but I have been on Mumsnet for a while. :)

I was having lunch with a dear friend this afternoon and it lead to an interesting conversation. She has recently had her first child and she felt that some people can begin to behave in an entitled, unreasonable and selfish manner once they have children.

I could see her point, although I felt that she was making some generalisations. For example, she pointed out at least a dozen examples when parents had behaved badly because they felt that their own convenience and that of their children should be prioritised over others.

I did disagree with her (which did not go down too well) because I felt she was being too harsh.

However, it got me thinking about several encounters I had in my own life.

For example, I have seen parents complain that disabled people should move from priority seats or Parent & Child Parking.

Another example was annual leave allocation - a former colleague actually expected our workplace to give her all her requested days because she had children. She wanted the company to put policies and measures in place to ensure that parents would be prioritised for leave over childless employees.
When this failed, she then started to use the same argument for flexible working requests and parking spaces.

I can list at least half a dozen other situations: a parent expecting me to move from my (booked!) train seat so her children could use the table seat (despite the fact that I was working). Parents parking on my drive and blocking me in because they needed to do school pickup (I live close to a school).

AIBU in thinking my friend may have a point even if she was being somewhat harsh?

Some people are entitled

There are entitled people everywhere its not limited to parents some of the most entitled people I've met are white men but not all white men are entitled

I can give you loads of examples of childless people being complete arses….so what?

This.

Humans are all different… you get entitled idiots in every walk of life.

Not any more so than entitled people without children.

These people would have been entitled before they had kids.

I think entitled people behave like this regardless and children are just the added layer for them to do so!

Today I had a guy have a go at me for parking too close to his Tesla (I was within the lines of the space) and he said he deliberately parked close to the lines so nobody would park next to him because his car is expensive....... I told him I needed to get my baby to his hospital appointment so tough and he could move it if he was concerned by me!

@Scottishskifun
I know exactly what you mean. This is the same argument I used with my friend. The sense of entitlement was probably always there. So it's no surprise it continues after the offspring arrives.

I am just thinking back to my former colleague and at the time her actions didn't bother me too much. But the more I think about it today, the more it strikes as entitled.

I agree they were probably entitled before having children but for some it’s like the children are an all conquering trump card to getting their way.

DD2 has cerebral palsy and severe and obvious disabilities, she is a wheelchair user. Her older sister frequently had mothers refusing to move their buggies from the designated disabled area on buses, U.K. drivers don’t want the aggro involved in insisting so they’d both have to wait for the next bus in the rain.

I now live in a different country and while the built environment is less disabled friendly, priority for the very elderly and disabled people is very embedded. DD2 likes to go on a tourist bus that follows a circular coastal route. It has a disabled area that the driver allows pushchairs in but explains they’ll have to move if a wheelchair user needs it. We were at our usual stop and this very nice looking family, not nationals of the country and presumably holidaying, did not want to move. The driver offered them a refund, didn’t want a refund, driver would not budge and rather than move to empty seats and fold their travel system (car seat with handle on folding base) they eventually got off.
I just can’t believe two adults thought that was the right thing to do.

The children are nothing to do with it, it's just people, thankfully a minority, who would without children be selfish and entitled. People like to say entitled parents because parent bashing is popular, especially parents who dare to drive to school.