5 Tips To Avoid Turning Your Child Into an Entitled Spoiled Brat

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We think we’re doing a good job raising our kids, teaching them the value of a dollar, manners, etiquette, the importance of education and the importance of valuing what you have. You teach them to be grateful and appreciative, to say their prayers and to understand that they are very blessed and they have much to be thankful for. You teach them that family is the most important thing in life and that memories they make now are more important than things. And then you find yourself at a loss shopping for a birthday present because they have everything. Your find yourself unable to park your second vehicle in your three-car garage because you have the big SUV in one spot and the kids bikes, scooters, 4-wheelers, Escalade, Corvette, John Deere and the golf cart in other spots. The moment you go to a birthday party that doesn’t have a combination bounce house and slide and you realize your kids don’t understand how it’s a party without one and the moment they tell you with disdain that so-and-so doesn’t have a DVD player on the roof of their car, you wonder what you did wrong.

Technically, nothing. Kids are all different. We live in Florida so our kids don’t understand people without outdoor living spaces, boats and weekends on the water or in the pool for 6 months out of the year. Some kids have never been on a boat or seen the ocean; we all have things we take for granted, and that’s what makes raising kids that are irritating little brats so difficult sometimes. What’s normal to some is not normal to others; it’s all relative, but it does not mean your kids have to be entitled little monsters. In fact, we have five tips that will prevent your kids from being entitled monsters whether they live in an apartment and ride the bus or they take the limo to school from their mansion.

Make them Work

When your kids want something new, make them work for it. Make them earn the money they want to buy things. When they have to do hard work to earn what they want, they’re more likely to appreciate and understand the value of a dollar and of life.

Let Your Kids Learn

As parents we want to do everything for our kids so that they never get hurt and they never have to go through difficulties in life, but they have to. They have to learn from experience or they will never learn at all.

Make them Accountable

Your kid didn’t do his or her homework – make them go to school and face the consequences of their actions. When kids are made accountable for their behaviors, they are less likely to disappoint again. It’s a good life lesson.

Diversify Your Kids

If you want your kids to be good kids instead of entitled brats, show them the diversity of the world. Take them to shelters and let them serve food to the homeless and let them donate their old toys and clothes to kids in need – and make them meet those kids.

Learn to Say No

Yes is good, but no is a word, too. And sometimes, you need to say it to your kids. Don’t give them everything. Say no. And here is a novel concept; you don’t even have to give them a reason for saying no. Just say it.

Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

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