Entitlement

Rebecca Eckler is a columnist for the National Post. She is also the author of Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-be. I have not read her book. One online reviewer described her book this way:

Selfishness at its Finest
I am so glad this woman was not MY mother. Her book may be considered funny by some, but I found it to be the ultimate in what our society has become. SELFISH! Her baby is nothing more than an inconvenience to her life. She even scheduled a C-Section for her delivery…not because of medical reasons, but because of HER SCHEDULE! We have become a society where children are not considered the blessings they are, but merely accessories to our wardrobe or mistakes happening on a drunken night. This book is evidence of that.

Her column in the today’s National Post seems to reinforce the bizarre frame of reference that some parents use to justify selfish behaviour.

The tagline for the column was: Only executive class will do for Nanny. Rebecca describes her recent two-week family vacation to a high-end resort in Maui (pictured above). And, since it is imperative to have a nanny with you on your family vacation, you must also book executive class seats for you, your partner, your child and your nanny. As Rebecca points out:

Without a nanny, a family vacation would be exhausting for parents. You couldn’t sleep in, have a romantic dinner or simply lie in the sun reading a book because your focus would be on the children.

And, simply to stretch the very limits of imagination, Rebecca goes on to describe the horrific ways that certain parents abuse the nannies that they take with them on luxury vacations at 5-star resorts:

Of course, there are horror stories. At the Four Seasons in Maui, for example, it’s well known that many employers expect their nannies to get up at 5 a.m. to save chairs around the pool, a disgusting practice in my view.

Actually, her whole column was disgusting in my view. Remarkable for the self-centered drivel of a parent who clearly prefers to minimize the inconvenience of having to raise children. And equally remarkable for the profoundly arrogant view of personal entitlement to lavish living. Her column closes with the following thought: “Everyone in the world is entitled to a vacation.”

I wonder if that entitlement extends to these folks.