What Has Happened to Parents?

Yesterday my daughter was telling me about something that happened at her school. She characterized it as "unfair", but I am often leery of that particular word. In our house that often means, "anything that doesn't suit me". This time, though, she was spot on.

It seems that there was a girl at her school who tried out for the volleyball team. We might know a thing or two about that . Sarah tried out last year. Girls at her school have to choose whether to try out for volleyball or track, as they run simultaneously and girls can't do both. Last year Sarah chose poorly.

It wasn't really her fault, though. The assistant principal told us at registration that none of the girls would have experience playing (Sarah had never played before), so it wouldn't matter that she was new to the sport. That was oh so very false. Most every girl there had either played on the team previously, played rec/traveling volleyball, or both. After the first day of weeklong tryouts, Sarah wasn't even allowed to touch the ball. She had to keep going for the whole week to officially be cut, even though she knew it all week.

It was tough for her. She ALWAYS gets everything she tries out for. She had never been rejected. While I was sad for her, in reality I was kinda glad. Everyone needs to experience that so that they learn how to be a good loser as well as a good winner. I don't beleive you can be a truly good winner if you don't know how it feels to lose.

Back to this other girl though. When she found out that she didn't make it, she cried. In middle school. In front of people. OK so I will admit that I am a crier. But I WOULDN'T have cried where anyone could see me....actually I probably wouldn't have cried about that but even if I had I would have cried in private. Then she ran home and TOLD HER MOMMY. What happened next was both unbelievable and yet predictable.

Mom went to the school, raised hell with the coach.....and guess who's on the team now? What the actual hell? Really? So now she is on the team and all the other girls on the team hate her because she sucks at volleyball. What do you bet that when the other girls shun her, Mommy will be right back at the school complaining about how her daughter is being bullied? Guess what??? THAT'S NOT BULLYING. That would be what I call "schoolyard justice". The supposed adults won't handle it, so the kids feel like they have to.

When did this happen to our society? Since when do parents get to run things at school? Guess what? You might not feel like the tryout process is fair....so what? Life isn't fair. The bottom line is, that mom wasn't at practice, she isn't the coach, and SHE DOESN'T GET TO PICK. And I'm sure that if the coach benches the girl because she can't play, Mommy will get fired up about that too.

It just makes me angry that so many children are being raised with this sense of entitlement....of "everyone's a winner" and "you can be anything you want". You CAN'T be anything you want. If you can't sing, you aren't going to win American Idol. If you are terrible at math/science, you AREN'T going to be an engineer. Our world isn't going to get better until we start getting REAL with our kids and stop coddling them. Coddled, spoiled, entitled brats grow up into coddled, spoiled, entitled adults who have no work ethic and want everything given to them. Wake up, parents.