Salee Reese

bossy child 3

“The inmates are running the asylum.”

Mary, a teacher, was referring to our culture’s epidemic of overindulged kids. She and many other teachers are seeing the evidence of overindulgence in the classroom every day.

According to Jean Illsley Clarke, Connie Dawson and David Bredehoff in their book, How Much Is Enough? Overindulgence isn’t merely “about too much stuff or too many privileges. It’s also about too much attention and wobbly rules.”

They also write about the impact of overindulgence on adult life. Far from possessing low self-esteem, these people possess inflated self-esteem. They carry around the notion that the world owes them—that they’re entitled. When their expectations aren’t met, they lash out, or they just simply ignore the rules. Read more about this in an earlier post, Spoiled for Life.

Additionally, these grown-up children are ill-prepared to face the demands of independence and the responsibilities of adulthood.

Mary was able to avoid this all-too-common parenting misstep. Click here to read about how she accomplished that.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.