Entitlement Parenting Questions

The college admission scandal that has ensnared students, parents, coaches, college officials and test administrators should be named Entitlement Parenting. Does it remind anyone of the case of the teen charged with killing 4 people while driving drunk?  The teen received probation, then violated it and fled to Mexico with help from his mother.  He was caught and required to serve 2 years jail time.  His original defense what he was too rich and spoiled to know right from wrong.  It was dubbed the affluenza defense. It seems like this current scandal is more of the same.  Wealthy parents crippling their children by spoiling them.   

Every parent wants their child to be a happy, self-supporting adult.  Every parent wants to minimize the struggles their child has to endure.  But, when did this parental protective instinct for some go off the rails?  When did some parents stop recognizing that OVER protecting children from struggle is actually hurting them?  

Did this all start with the participation trophy theory?  In the effort to build self esteem for children does giving everyone a trophy instead of just those that win seem like a good idea?  Life lessons come from both winning and losing.

Did the mantra that "You can be anything you want" cause affluent parents to believe that they must spend whatever it takes to make the statement true for their children?  Did this then become a part of the mantra "Keeping up the the neighbors"?

Did all of this get magnified with the cell phone?  It is the ubiquitous umbilical cord.  Do parents feel compelled to monitor every school assignment, every grade, every sports practice or even the child's location at any given moment?  Are children learning personal responsibility with parents that are micro-managing their lives?  

Struggle and failure are painful to watch our children go through but they are important life lessons.  When parenting becomes more about appearances (in this case--getting into the right school), the children will pay the price.  

Happy self-supporting adults are the product of parents that balance helping their children with letting them struggle at times.  This balance is different for every family and every parent/child relationship but the lesson should never be that it's ok to cheat.