My husband and I just took our two spoiled, loved, and devoted standard poodles for Play Time at our usual spot.  Mandy, a black standard poodle, and Mindy a Silver Phantom Poodle, love to run and run and Mandy pays no attention to anything except her favorite blue ball.

This special spot almost always has someone who we always strike up a conversation with. This is a place to talk and exercise our beloved animals.  The talk is  Sometimes is about dogs, and animals, and mostly it is about life and living.

Today the topic was about Too much Indulgence: We exchanged opinions and the first opinions were about our dogs.  We both agreed that the dogs deserved everything.  We also agreed that they were like family to us.  They definitely were indulged, big time…..

A lady with a black Labrador was also running her dog for exercise.  This is a small community in contrast to others in California.  Many of us know others somehow.  Jan introduced herself, and we immediately began chatting.  The subjects are always different.

Today is the day after mother’s Day: We immediately exchanged information about grown children. Each of us asked about Mothers Day.  The first thing out her mouth was about her daughter who is over indulged.

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Do all parents feel this way?.  Somehow, many parents in their 50’s and over, in this particular community have somehow over indulged their children.  She went on to say that this was all her fault and her husbands.  She said, “Their adult children have had the best schooling, have not had to work as kids, like we did, have everything arranged for them, go to the best schools, wear the best clothes, and on and on.”  I cannot deny that I agreed.  We are the generation that gave everything to our children, and now, our children might have a difficult time giving the next generation the same indulgences.  Psychologically we have raised the ME generation…Interesting concept, but it is true. Interesting conversation over time of 20 minutes giving our dogs exercise.

In my practice, I have heard this many times before.  The millennials!  my practice is part of my life.  Recently, many people have come in for help to deal with over indulged children.  These children are from the millennial generation.  This is a new phenomena. Some of these kids that I am hearing about stem from the ages of little children up and through graduation.    Currently parents who are in their sixties an below, are puzzled by what has transpired raising their children.  Many parents express questions about indulgence, spoiled, money, entitlement, and always ask the question, of: ” How did this happen to us?”   “We gave our children the best schools, lessons, special coaching in sports, even to the point of private coaching.” Why do these kids act spoiled?  Interesting questions and timely!  What have many of us done?   How will this concept and behavior wind up in ten years? How are these adult children going to fare as adults?  Are they going to repeat this behavior?  Times are different,,,,,Are these adult children going to afford what their parents did for them?

As a professional with a strong opinion, based on people I have run into in the last l0 years.  Facts…….Our adult children from certain communities going to be able to make the money their parents did to carry this tradition on?  Is this a good model for raising our adult children’s children?