The Song of the Self-Entitled Suburbanite

I'm sure many people remember back before the Parsippany Park & Rec Department computerized their summer camp enrollment, spending many cold wet nights sleeping outside in order to get their kids one of the limited spaces. After a few years people learned, if you wanted your kid in camp you had to get their early because by dawn's early light the line stretched down Knoll Rd, filled with parents praying they would get a spot.

So, I have to say I was pretty disgusted the last time I was once again freezing my middle-aged ass off in an uncomfortable lawn chair all night to see the woman next to me let 5 of her girlfriends show up in the morning and get in line with her. From the amount of vodka and Bailey's they had in their Thermos's, I'm pretty sure they didn't care at all about what they did. I was reminded of this last night while attending the Central Middle School production of THE LITTLE MERMAID.  In a room full of hundreds of elementary school, middle school and high school students and adults, it was not the students who were the disrespectful and disruptive attendees. It was the adults.

I'm not quite sure when a person's zip code and the dollar amount of their property taxes made them exempt from doing what they are nicely asked to do or feeling that rules do not apply to them but from what I saw in the Parsippany High School theater last night, there are quite of few of them in our area.

Three times the audience was asked to take their seats so they could get people inside to start the show. These productions always sell out and seats are at a premium. So, I wonder ... The three times you were asked to take your seats, why did such a great number of you adults feel that this did not apply to you? Because you chose to ignore and  follow a simple request and find your seats, those of us who were seated had to wait for the show to start almost 20 minutes late.

Before the intermission, it was announced that there would be snacks served in the cafeteria but to please not bring any food or drinks back into the theater. So, to all the adults I saw bring in bags of chips and candy and bottles of water and soda, what part of that request didn't mean YOU? Because it wasn't the children I saw come slinking back in with food and beverages hidden in your coats and purses. And, p.s.? The fact that you were hiding it ... pretty much says you knew you were doing something you shouldn't be doing.

Three times a request was made to please turn off cellphones because it was interfering with the lights and sound system. These are middle school children trying to be heard in a theater auditorium that holds almost 500 people. They needed to be mic'ed in order to be heard. So, thank you parents who wouldn't comply. Thank you for feeling that they meant everyone in the room except you needed to turn off your cellphones. 

And, speaking of cellphones at performances? Whether it is a professional rock concert or a Broadway show or a middle school play ... NO ONE WANTS TO SUFFER THROUGH YOU TAKING A CRAPPY VIDEO FROM 50 YARDS BACK ON YOUR iPHONE THE ENTIRE TIME! From the woman who felt the need to hold up her 8 inch by 12 inch iPad/Notebook thing to the woman with the George Lucas-sized video camera complete with flashing red light, no, things did not get better when you spent the whole night bobbing and weaving to "get a better shot". I'm sure your child would have appreciated you putting it down at least once during the show to clap for them but you didn't. You didn't applaud one single time. I'm guessing it was because you had to make sure you filmed the entire 90 minute production so you get home and post it on Facebook.

Know how my mom remembers my school plays. She sat there and watched them. She carries those memories in heart and in her head. She didn't watch me through a tiny cellphone lens to then just save it as a video file on her hard drive. I think it is becoming a very sad thing that parents are compartmentalizing their children's lives as nothing more than tweets and photos on Instagram.

My wife talks about the students she teaches in her college class being a generation of self-entitled people who ignore her in class. They sit and do homework on their laptops for other classes. They don't feel that they should show her any respect because they have never had to go out with a newspaper classified section in their hands to find a job. No one ever took the time or made the effort to teach them by example. So, before you start saying it's only the kid's in inner city schools who grow up disrespectful because of the bad parenting that they receive, I believe one should remember the old adage, "People who live in glass houses...".