Back in the Stone Age, giving to your child might have meant providing food, shelter and protection. Those needs are still there. Unfortunately, if you give in to every little want and need your child expresses, you are really feeding and nurturing a sense of false entitlement issues. It will lead to problems later in life.

How many of your kids are watching the TV commercials this time of year and you hear "I want that" oh "I want that"! Every time a commercial comes on I hear that from my grand kids.

It's important to keep in mind that parents and kids get some powerful messages from TV commercials and from society. Some of the biggest is "the more you give your child, the better parent you are. " this is the newest thing, it's what everybody's getting, if you don't have it, you won't be cool. Pretty soon parents feel obligated to give, give, give, or they are afraid that the kids won't be happy on Christmas morning. Very often we as parents are still paying for broken or discarded Christmas gifts well into the first of the year, and the kids can't even remember what they got.

When you child thinks the world revolves around him/her and you should just give to them "because" they have some serious entitlement issues and it's time for a wake up call.

Don't keep giving like that all you're doing is setting your child up for entitlement issues that later in life will make them a monster in your home. Always expecting to be given anything and everything they want or think they need. It's not unreasonable or mean to make a child earn the privilege of a new pair of sneakers or a new toy of some kind. Making them earn part of the cost of the item will also make them take better care of the new item as well.

I can't tell you how many ski parkas my daughter has bought her son because he was constantly loosing his coat, even with his name in the back of it. She finally got a clue and started buying the coats from the second hand store. Surprisingly when he wasn't able to wear the newest fashion of ski parkas he started taking better care of the coat with the promise if he could keep track of the last parka for two months and he had to pay for a portion of the new coat, then she would purchase a new parka. That was two winters ago, last winter he didn't loose not one parka.

I hear every day that kids don't appreciate what they have and all they want is "more" why can't I go to the mall with my friends and by the way I need some money!  We as parents have to stop the insanity, it will be hard at first but eventually your home will be a happier place to be.