PrintAugust 18, 2013
The High Entitlement Mind
Recently, a thirty-something daughter wanted me to evaluate her fifty-something mother for disability. She wanted her mother to leave her job at a bank. "I don't want my momma slavin' in no bank." The mother worked as a supervisor, and she seemed proud of her position. Her worst stress came from her 16-year-old grandson who was living with her. He had been expelled from school for fighting and had recently pushed her into a wall because she refused to drive him to the mall.
I reflected on the young woman's formulation that going to work was "slavin'" and the significance of that term to her as an African-American. Did she feel entitled to turn her mother into free in-home supervision for her son? She had felt entitled to have a son whom she could not afford to raise. When the fatherless boy grew into a violent teenager she responded by trying to get her own mother on disability. Coincidentally, the older lady's job called her while she was in my office. She instantaneously...(Read Full Article)
