In a world of quick fixes and instant gratification, children with entitlement issues are everywhere – making demands at the grocery store, bickering at birthday parties, and setting their own rules with mom and dad. But how do you combat this problem at home while still building your child’s confidence and self-esteem?

The Entitlement-Free Child is every parent’s answer to raising children in an entitlement world. This book explains how we got here and how to move away from entitlement behavior. It explains how entitlement thinking (Me! Mine! Now!) is based on the fear and the panic that there won’t be “enough” for me if I don’t get it all now. It then gives parents effective alternatives to the quick fixes and the short-term solutions of giving-in and buying up. By highlighting the entitlement or entitlement-free messages in everyday parenting situations, The Entitlement-Free Child shows parents how to meet a child’s genuine needs while teaching respect and appreciation for others.

Why you should read this book

This is the parenting book for the “new economy”. Parents can no longer say “yes” to everything their children want and the old ways of trying to make kids happy by over-indulging them doesn’t fit anymore (not that over-indulgence ever “worked”). With new limits on spending and cracks in the protective bubble, parents need new parenting strategies. Parents also need some reassuring hand-holding that everything is going to be all right. This book accomplishes both.

This book contains hands-on tips to guide parents through difficult issues like:

• Cell phones
• Eating out
• Birthday parties
• Bossiness
• Teacher conflicts
• Allowances
• Bickering siblings
• Dinnertime demands

Does your child?

• beg for new toys and then discard them quickly?
• focus more on quantity than on the actual object?
• lose things haphazardly and never miss them?
• know how to handle objects with care?
• grow bored quickly with what she has?
• measure her things against what others have?
• place more emphasis on things than on people?

If you answered yes to these questions, your child may be overindulged.

What are the benefits?

The only way to really have “more” in life and give your child “more” is to make “entitlement-free” choices now. Entitlement-Free parenting:

• Eliminates the self-perpetuating stress of entitlement where nothing is ever enough
• Gives you the permission and the encouragement to say “no” (a positive response to parental doubt & guilt)
• Teaches children self respect and respect for others
• Teaches children self control and postponed gratification
• Teaches children age-appropriate problem solving skills
• Gives children age-appropriate responsibility for choices and behavior

The Entitlement-Free Family:

• Makes time in daily routines to think, plan, and discuss
• Promotes curiosity with open-ended discussions of “What else?” and “What if?”
• Examines the situation from other people’s perspectives
• Connects feelings and thoughts to choices and actions