Privilege or Abuse?

I do not watch the news.  I don't trust the media.  They are biased and agenda-driven, in my opinion.  I get my news from my biased, agenda-driven FB friends' posts.  But, one would have to live under a rock to not have heard about the college-admission-for-pay scandal.  The media is rife with indignation over rich privilege.  Google tells me that one of the most vocally incensed reporters will make $500,000 this year at her job.  There are those who might consider that rich privilege, but then all things are relative.  So, I've been asking myself, is it privilege or is it child abuse?

Most parents would tell you that they would do anything for their child, and they mean it when they say it.  I've heard people say (I may have said it myself), "I would stand in front of a moving train for my child."  That's pretty easy to say, because very few of us are going to be called upon to do that.  It sounds lofty and honorable, but, really, it is a pretty empty statement.

It seems the harder question is not would we stand in front of a moving train for our children, but rather would we stand by and watch our children take the hard knocks that will build character in them.  I believe having to watch our children stumble and hurt and pay for bad choices is the hardest and most loving action of being a parent, because there will come a time when we cannot "fix it."  If they have not suffered disappointment and consequences in the small but significant matters of growing up life, how will they ever deal with all that adulthood throws at them?

I find myself in the midst of my disgust over this whole scandal an undercurrent of great sorrow ~ sorrow for parents who have to look at the ineptitude of their children for which they are in some degree responsible and the angst they must (I hope) feel in cheating the system in order to cheat their child of accomplishing their own goals.  I have great sorrow for the children, those who knew their parents were cheating for them and those who did not.  I cannot imagine the embarrassment that they (I hope) feel over knowing their parents do not think them able.  I feel sorrow for those who work at the colleges who were so drawn to money that they would jeopardize their families, their jobs, and their self-respect.  I am working on my sorrow for the guy who orchestrated this whole thing, but even he, in some sense, suffers from the overwhelming sense of entitlement so many people have.  Make no mistake, this sense of entitlement is not unique to rich privilege either.  I must admit that the "I'm entitled" mentality raises my ire faster than most anything because it is the author of rudeness to waitstaff, and sales clerks, and teachers and anyone else we encounter on a day to day basis.  

So, yes, this whole situation is a tragedy for all involved, a tragedy that without a sense of entitlement would never have happened.  There is nothing quite like being able to know you earned your way recognizing always those who helped you get there, for I am a firm believer there are very few (zero) "self-made" folks.  I urge all of us rather than reveling in all our self-righteousness the downfall of the privileged rich, that we look at our own temptations.  It's pretty easy to say we would not pay $500,000 (a year's salary for said reporter) to cheat to get our child in a college they did not earn.  Few of us have that much money lying around to throw at such an endeavor.  Let us think, however, all the ways we "prepare the path for our children rather than preparing our children for the path," as my friend Pat Ward would say.  And for the love of all things right and holy, please let this attitude of "I am entitled to it because I want it" mentality end with this generation of children.  Please!!!