As crazy as this sounds, I can understand the mentality of the girl who pistol whipped her mother. "I paid my dues by doing well in school, now buy me a car".  Granted most teens will never even think about resorting to such a level of callous foolishness, but a good number of my clients seeing me for the first time subscribe to that entitled mentality- "I deserve this and I deserve that."

I am not suggesting that this girl cannot be redeemed, but with her display of such callosness, what difference will it make if she goes to an ivy league school? Until she achieves a hundred and eighty degree turnaround in her attitude, I don't see an improvement in her relationship with her mother any time soon.

As parents when we push our children to succeed in any aspect of life, we unintentionally run the risk of giving our children the perception that we only accept them if they achieve certain goals that we hold in high value. Of course for most parents, this is not true. However perceptions are very powerful and any child or adolescent who develops such an unfortunate perception, will likely adopt such an attitude in their relationship with their parents. "I will only show you my love if you buy me what I want."

What happens when children are raised with the belief that they are entitled to nothing materialistic, and everything they receive from their parents is a blessing? The you tube video below, a reenactment of a true story is what happens.

Yes, my childhood love was soccer, and this story has a personal bias for me, but I suspect it has a universal message of inspiration to others. Heck, those of my clients who have already seen the video, love it.