What's in it for me?

My daughter is getting older and having a birthday party this weekend. As any parent will tell you, not only is it difficult for you to watch your children grow up, but it is more difficult to see them learn lessons about life that you can't protect them from. You have to let them experience it and go through the pain.

Everyone today is in the mode of "What is in it for me?" We can't help someone else, unless it is to our benefit. We must weigh every choice and decision on the advantages and disadvantages of what the return on our investment will be. Morals, ethics and social correctness do not enter into the equation anymore. This attitude is being taught to our children and is a sad statement on our society.

My case in point is when we were younger (yes, i'm dating myself), we used to buy cereal, not for the taste or that we liked it, but for the gratification of the toy in the box. Today children do not have that option, but they do have the option when deciding between McDonald's or Wendy's....who's giving out the best toy this week? Now add to that, my daughter invited someone to her birthday party. Her invitation was received first.......a day later the person received an invitation for another birthday party on the same day. Manners dictate that if they are both friends, then the first invitation received is accepted and the second is turned down. Instead, the parent allowed the child to choose which party they wanted to go to. The child chose the party with the coolest prize of course (our party is a movie party, the other party is a build a bear workshop party where the child will get to go home with a $25 stuffed animal). My daughter of course is upset about this and there is nothing I can tell her other than to hug her and say "yes, it is upsetting" "yes it is not fair" "and no, people should not decide based on What's in it for me?"

Some lessons in life are not fair and it becomes even harder when you are raising your children correctly and so many others aren't. It makes your child go "why should i follow the right path? it just means i'm doing the correct thing but that i'm losing anyway"......and to that you respond that "it isn't about winning or losing, it is about doing the right thing and feeling good about yourself that you haven't hurt someone else's feelings as they will hurt yours"

Can we please start reversing our trends of "What's in it for me?" and "It's all about me" before society degrades any further?