so, i don’t know anything about parenting, but I was talking to my sister (we both teach college) about the way that students can seem really entitled these days. (a student disagreed with her about a hard rule by saying, “agree to disagree”) and so we wondered about why parents spoil their children. and she mentioned the comment of a friend that suggested guilt. and that was interesting to me because when i think of the differences between what my parents had and what they gave us it makes me recognize that no matter how much i whined about wanting things my parents knew i would survive; they had on much, much less. but if i’d had kids and they had whined, i might have wondered about how much i could give them. i really had everything i needed and more. i might have badly spoiled my children. they might have ended up entitled. that would suck for their professors.