Verified by 
Raising Children to Become Responsible Adults (con.)
Based on the views of many experts in the field, one of the best summaries for getting spoiled, entitled children back on track is offered by Sherry Rauh. Besides the often reiterated suggestion to set clear and consistent rules and boundaries--and establish appropriate consequences whenever they're broken--she lists the following:
• Create suitable incentives for good behavior;
• Teach children that giving is as important [and I'd add, satisfying] as receiving;
• Teach children how to take "no" for an answer; and [perhaps most fundamental of all]
• Be a positive role model. (As Rauh notes: "Show respect and consideration toward others and your child will follow your lead")
Emily Battaglia, whom I've already cited, talks about how parents must sit their "spoiled" children down and explain to them unequivocally how--and why--previous rules (or the lack of same!) are to be changed. At the same time she advises parents (and, to me, this point can hardly be overemphasized) to "teach [their] children to value intrinsic motivations, like feeling pride and accomplishment, over external motivations, like money."
One brief piece on the Web, called "Entitled to Love" [author's name not given], poses the question of just what kids are entitled to. Beyond food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical care, children are seen as entitled to unconditional love and support. Additionally, they're "entitled to be loved for who they are, not what they do . . . and to live free from hate and war." These humanistic ideals of entitlement are then contrasted to what children are not entitled to--in brief, the many different things children might want, but don't really need. And this essay makes clear that it's vital that parents help their children to understand the difference.
Moreover, parents need to realize that children (despite their being children) aren't entitled to be free from responsibility. For if parents don't insist that their children act responsibly, they can inadvertently give them the message either that they're not capable of acting responsibly, or that they really don't need to because their parents are ready and willing to take over for them. And both these messages are seen as facilitating a sense of entitlement.
In a sense, the job of parents today has never been harder. For one thing, they frequently need to be willing to stand firm against community norms that unintentionally endorse entitlement (an unfortunate result of the simplistically implemented, and narcissism- promoting, self-esteem movement for children). And for another, they need--pro-actively (and pro-socially?!)--to act as a counterforce to all the ads incessantly and insidiously "preying on" their children's minds.
Unquestionably, the message children get from the 100s (1000s?) of commercials they're repeatedly subject to is that they're entitled to whatever they want-and further, that they're entitled to it immediately. In fact, our whole culture of consumption might be viewed as fueling a sense of entitlement, such that many adults are also afflicted by it.
But finally, constantly searching for the next thing that will "do it" for us carries within it the notion (or doom) of frustration and futility. It goes against the whole idea of learning to be content with what we already have. And not only does it gratuitously create desire where none may have existed before, it also fosters a sense of urgency to gratify that desire. Yet happiness, as has been illustrated from the beginnings of recorded history, does not derive from mere acquisition--just as people with a sense of entitlement rarely can be pronounced happy. For happiness in the context of materialism is something we're always one possession away from. As the Greek philosopher Epicurus once opined, "Nothing is enough for the [person] to whom enough is too little."
People "cursed" with a sense of entitlement are fated to be forever looking round the bend toward the next thing that will make them happy. But such pleasure or excitement is inevitably short-lived because using people or things to "manipulate" yourself into an enduring state of well-being simply isn't impossible.
To close with a final quote from "Entitled to Love": "The things that make children happy [and, I would add, adults as well] are the same things they're [legitimately] entitled to--things like love and security and connectedness--and they're not for sale."
Note: Here are links to Parts 1, 2, 3, & 4 of this multi-part post.
--- I invite readers to follow my psychological/philosophical musings on Twitter.
