Happy Monday! How was your weekend? Was it filled with crazy kids running around, Easter hunts and lots of food? Or maybe it was just a peaceful weekend with your family. Holidays filled with lots of kids can be stressful enough to make you want to crawl into a hole and pull it in behind you!

Honestly, sometimes the next generation really does have an attitude problem… right?! But, there is a bigger problem shaping how your child is being groomed – and it isn’t because everyone got a participation trophy for Little League. The truth is, they picked up that entitlement attitude from YOU.

On the most basic level, entitlement means you simply believe someone “owes” you something. So whenever you receive something, you see it as payment for any “services” you provided. You don’t register it as an act of kindness, love or even truly appreciate it. When was the last time you thanked a family member for helping with the dishes? Thanked your spouse or parent for cooking dinner? Thanked your spouse or parent for working every day to provide for your family? Or do you just expect these things?

If you can’t show gratitude and appreciation to your spouse or your kids, do you think they’re going to just pick that skill up on their own? Parenting isn’t a “give-birth-and-hope-for-the-best” kind of job.

To groom a new “anti-entitlement” generation, use these 4 tips:

1. You have to understand gratitude and thanksgiving are taught behaviors. In other words, you didn’t pop out of your mama and say, “Thank you.” You had to be taught to say that!
2. Let them fail! You aren’t always there to help them succeed or to fix all their problems. It’s up to you to teach them not to be afraid of failure. Show them how failures can be used to create success.
3. If you haven’t adopted the “We can’t afford it” mentality in your household, you need to! Give your child realistic financial expectations. Let them work for special things, but don’t be afraid to be honest about your household finances.
4. If you have a smartphone, people at school have the latest smartphone or even if the dog has one… it does not mean your kids need one! I hear it all the time, “But so-and-so at school has one.” They expect something just because you have it or someone else does.

As a parent, you want to give your child every opportunity and tool to succeed in life. Unrealistic expectations of the job market, finances and relationships are not helping them! Instead, work on your mindset and start changing your household now! Together we can start a new generation in the wake of the “gimme-gimme-gimme” attitude we see in our society today.

Leave me your comments below on this issue, and be sure to Like and Share today’s message. That’s it for my thoughts this morning, but be sure to join us this morning for The Dani Johnson Show bright and early at 7 am, or on demand at your own convenience! You can tune in to the show on either your TV or radio and please remember you can always stream today’s show right here on our website.

In great faith,

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