Signs of Spoiled Child

10 Signs That Your Child Is Spoiled

January 11, 2013

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Spoil me rotten! They say you can't spoil a baby with endless amounts of holding, rocking, and cooing, but once that child passes the toddler years, overindulgence can make for one ill-behaved tot. It's easy to pick out the spoiled kid on the playground but much harder to turn a critical eye on ourselves. Here's a checklist of 10 signs that indicate that you may have a spoiled child on your hands.

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by Rebecca M Gruber 32

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32 Comments

thanasaki1 14 weeks 4 days

I definitely agree children are not given consequences to their actions and discipline has gone out the window. Parents: discipline doesn't=smacking. People think that if u r disciplining your child that the only way is to smack them. Have any other skills? Come on. Boundaries, limits. Children need to be taught right from wrong. They r not born with that. So start teaching them. Btw, to an earlier comment "missmalone", as a mother of 4, I have a child diagnosed with autism, possibly aspergers, and u cannot confuse that with add/ADHD, no matter what decade. I know they labeled kids differently before but not aspergers for ADD/ADHD. A lot of kids with autism have ADHD so to put them together is false.

LoveMyBug7611 18 weeks 6 days

I have an 18 month old baby girl, who is the epitome of a spoiled brat (and I mean that in the most loving, nicest way possible). I'm partly to blame b/c I never had a good relationship with my mom growing up and I guess i try to overcompensate for the lack of relationship with my mom. But the real culprits are her grandparents. They just let her do whatever and when she's home she thinks she can do whatever, and that's when the discipline happens. I'm not afraid to tell my child no b/c when you do that, when you give your child everything they want, always let them get their way, and let them get away with doing things they're not suppose to you're only doing a disservice to your kid. Children need discipline, structure and rules. In my opinion, that's what's wrong with today's youth, they grew up having everything handed to them and never had to face consequences when they did something wrong. It's near impossible to pop or God forbid spank your child anymore, you'll have DSS knocking on your door. My baby throws tantrums, BAD ones, and she gets punished for acting out like that. When you don't discipline your kids, or make them have any consequences growing up, once they're grown they think they can do/say whatever they want and in the real world they will get a very rude awakening. I feel sorry for teachers these days, b/c kids are more spoiled now than ever before. And it's all due to a lack of discipline.

Hitsugi 18 weeks 6 days

Missmalone : It was the same with me but instead of going to a naturopath I stoped the tablets and beleive it or not I grew out if it. Well to be honest I dont beleive i ever had it to begin with....for me to many people wannt to put their kid on Meds cuz they cannot control them and they are not strong enough to diseplin them....I am not saying there are not kids with genuine ADD or ADHA but I think its alot less than what the media makes it out to be. THe reason parents are afriad to desapline their kids is because of political correctness. I beleive Smacking your child is OK,,,with an open palm and on the butt, as long as it is not over done. Hey I was smacked with wooden spoons or " Charlie a nice stick my mother found in the woods xD but I am not agressive or mentaly unstable actually it made me a better person... this may sound harsh but but my cousins daughter she is 3 and she wanted candy when we went shopping she chucked the biggest temper tantrum ever...kicking screaming crying yelling, all i did was let her do it in the middle of the Isle and 30 min later she was fine and over it. we went home and then she had a nap and was running bout afterwards but i did take the time to explain to her what she did was wrong and that it is unexeptable to do such things and so far never done it again. Yes I got insult, yes people started at me and gave me glares, yeah i was asked to leave by the staff at the shopping center, but i said I guess u never dealt with a kid before the staff member kept quite and left

Carri 2 years 34 weeks

Of course kids are going to slip up and test limits. After all, they are human. I really do feel sorry for teachers nowadays because it seems like we are raising self centered little monsters. I'm not going to say that I'm a perfect parent, because I'm not, but there is a time to discipline your child. I mean, good grief. Where did people get this sense of entitlement?

2 years 50 weeks

I blame parents for everything!!!! No one wants to punish their kids anymore!!! The comments that disagree with the post, are disagreeing because they have children just like this and are in denial!!! GROW SOME BALLS AND DISCIPLINE YOUR CHILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 years 4 weeks

i want to/will let my children have what they want but they will not be spoiled, they will be deservant, there is a difference.(:

PiNkY PiNk 3 years 10 weeks

to anon who won't be teaching anymore: that's awesome that you decided to not keep teaching if it's not something you like. More elementary school teachers should do that. I had a BITCH of a kinder teacher who was horribly unsatisfied with her life.

missmalone 3 years 10 weeks

hmmm... It seems EVERY kid our days has "aspergus" And sure some may have. But in the 90's early 2000's it was ADD or ADHD. Has a grade three child i was diagnosed with ADD. Which I then had to take these dreaded tablets and I lost all this weight became a very pale, fragile looking girl. I pretty much turned into a zombie child. Until mum took me off the medication, she went to natropaths and they put me on a diet. no sugar. wheat. milk. and preservative free diet. which helped my learning and i put on all the weight agian. I ate alternate foods such as dark rye, soy milk, etc...

3 years 12 weeks

I also think it's important to teach kids to question authority to a point. For example, I would be proud if my kid (if I had one.. I am a preschool teacher, though!) questioned a teacher who asked the class to vote on who they want kicked out of class like happened to an Autistic boy a couple years back. Not the best example but you get the idea of where I'm going with this. That is not to say that I would teach kids to question authority when they are asked to clean up or do their homework etc, though. It is just important not to blindly obey authority. Nazi soldiers did a great job of obeying. Just sayin!

3 years 12 weeks

I spoil my little girl (4) and she does not show many of the behaviors listed (she did as a toddler). I teach her to obey and respect me as well as others. I also encourage her to ask questions, challenge thoughts but in discussion with me alone. This way she trust me to get the answer and if I cannot I do work with her teachers or other resources to find out. I aid in her preschool class and I really feel for the teachers sometimes. It is a shame some children take, in my own opinion, crucial teaching time away from other children because they lack self control and respect for others. Yes, she is 4 but she gets it and I think all 4 year olds are pretty smart and get it too.

3 years 12 weeks

I totally agree with the teacher who commented. I'm a kindergarten teacher and almost all the kids in my class do the things on this list, on pretty much a daily basis (except, maybe, for the tantrums, though I do have a few kids that will tantrum). The kids correct me on trivial things constantly (they are almost always wrong), talk to me like I'm an idiot, won't listen, I hear "Giive it to me, that's miiiiine!!!" constantly... Yeah can you tell I'm counting down the days until the end of the school year and will not be teaching again!!! These kids have done me in. Seeing how their parents let them run wild, it's no wonder teachers and parents can't get control these days.

3 years 12 weeks

I cant stand spoiled childs and parents that dont say nothing....I agree that if a child does this things once in a while its o.k but if it is always IS a spoiled child....

inlove23 3 years 12 weeks

I babysit two kids, and for some reason they have such a hard time putting their dishes on the counter when they are done eating. It's so strange, and when I ask them to scrap their plates the sometimes get defensive and I'm like seriously??? Sometimes I ask why they don't want to do it, and they say "my dad will do it".

amandachalynn 3 years 12 weeks

I didn't put sticking up for themselves in the same category as correcting someone. I totally agree with you that a child should be able to stand up and say they didn't do something if they didn't. I was thinking of a child telling an adult that they are wrong about trivial things. For example, I once had a kid tell me that I was teaching her the wrong way to do vocal exercises. She said ' The shaky in your voice is wrong, it shouldn't do that'. I felt like saying 'It's called a vibrato brat, that's part of classical opera.' Instead of course I taught her about vibrato, and had her listen to some other examples. I thought that was the way to go since I was teaching.;-) That's the kind of correction I was talking about, not defending yourself. So I do agree to a point on that!

betty kraker 3 years 12 weeks

all those signs are what my kids are and i know they r brats so now we have a way to figure it out how do we fix it

3 years 12 weeks

"They are often over scheduled with organized activities, and do not have the time to just go and play with friends without adult interferance. " [sic] And where does the blame belong on that one?

3 years 12 weeks

While I agree that there is a major lack of respect from many kids these days and that a lot of kids are spoiled, I don't agree that these "signs" mean your child IS spoiled. Children until a certian age should have tantrums as this is how they learn to express their emotions and relieve their stress. I certianly don't think an 8 year old should be doing it daily, but I can understand 1 a week. Children these days are under a lot of stress and have a lot of pressure and expectations placed on them compared to a generation or 2 ago. They are often over scheduled with organized activities, and do not have the time to just go and play with friends without adult interferance. The old addage of "children should be seen and not heard" doesn't hold true for me. I have to agree that children should be able to "speak up and argue" when needed. If my child gets blamed for something and they had nothing to do with it, I don't want them to just take a punishment that's not theirs, I want them to say, "hey, wait, that wasn't me, I had nothing to do with it!" They should be able to defend themselves to anyone, especially when I'm not around to help them. Things were a lot simpler when you used to be able to leave the house at breakfast all on your own with your friends and not come home until supper, but everyone was safe and there were not "crazies" after our children. when the worst thing that children did was call someone a bad name or when the teens would "make out" before they were engaged and married. I'd really like to know how in such a short period of time-only a generation or 2-the pendulum seems to have swung from one end of the spectrum right over to the other? I'm really hoping that maybe our kids generation finds a good middle ground bewteen the 2. One where children can speak without fear of their parents, yet still have respect for them.

Tamma1387 3 years 12 weeks

I also agree with the denial. It's normal for a child to display some of these behaviors ONCE IN A WHILE, but if its a daily occcurance, take a step back and think about if you were viewing the situation from a different parent's perspective. I'm a very young mother of a four year old who is an only child and if I can raise her to respect adults PROPERLY you can teach your kids too.

Tamma1387 3 years 12 weeks

How about lack of standard manners such as saying "please" or "thank you"? I work in a candy/ice cream store and days will go by that I won't hear a child say those two simple phrases, and the parents let them get away with it. When my four year old has better manners than your 10 year old, you might want to take a step back and look at the way your raising your child.

MuppetsForDinner 3 years 12 weeks

Thanks, amandachalyn. Something you said reminded me of a piece from the NYT article I referenced earlier. It reads: "Once upon a time, parenting was largely about training children to take their proper place in their community, which, in large measure, meant learning to play by the rules and cooperate... There was a time when there was a certain code of conduct by which you viewed the character of a person,...and you needed that code of conduct to have your place in the community." Since when does teaching your child how to cooperate and respect adults (including his/her parents) mean to not ask questions and not have an opinion? I believe it means finding the appropriate time and place to share such an opinion... like on an internet message board! ;-) I'm glad we're all taking these few minutes to think about these things. I think they're really important.

amandachalynn 3 years 12 weeks

"I want them to speak up and argue when something is wrong because regardless of who you are or what position you are in over my child, you need to be corrected also if you are wrong." Sorry, but I have to politely disagree with this. My child is a CHILD, and I personally believe that children should be respectful to adults. I do not think an adult should be corrected by a child. I teach my son to ask questions and try to find out why someone has a certain opinion, but he should never challenge them without having all of the facts. To me, that is egocentric behavior because the child is usually incorrect, or the adult has certain reasons to their opinion. To each their own, though.

3 years 12 weeks

muppets4dinn - 100% agree think the mom's on here that are defensive need to check themselves.

3 years 12 weeks

I do spend pently of time around other children and my own and I do belive that I AM NOT in denial. I'm saying that you can not make generalized statements about children like this! My children are not difficult children that have a hard time getting along with other or dealing with dissappointments. Im saying that we're raising our kids to have a mind of their own and speak it, but they do have rules and boundaries to follow! I don't want my children to be like little lemmings who follow along with everyone else! When a friend tells them to make faces during carpet time at school or wants them to try smoking a cigarette, I want them to have a mind of their own and question it! I want them to speak up and argue when something is wrong because regardless of who you are or what position you are in over my child, you need to be corrected also if you are wrong. I am in complete agreement with amandamay that tantrums CAN have to do with being spoiled, however they have a lot more to do with personality! I also do not appreciate you, muppets4dinn, implying that I am in denial and I need help to fix a problem! You do not know me or my children or the way I was raised. I also know plenty of people who were raised very stictly and as soon as the control was released, those people went wild and had and still have far more problems than people raised in more liberal homes! As for arguing with LS, that's every one's right as it's freedom of speach, beliefs and opinions. Last I checked, no one's opinion can be wrong as it's simply that, an opinion! If LS didn't want people to disagree with this or any other post, she could very easily have made it "10 signs that your child COULD BE be spoiled" instead of "10 signs that your child IS spoiled"

3 years 12 weeks

i don't agree with #1 - "throws tantrums often". my brother and i are 18 months apart in age and were raised by strict, non-spoiling parents... i threw tantrums 24-7 (i mean, i was KNOWN for my tantrums when i was little) and my brother never threw even one (my mom says that once he "tried" to throw a tantrum to copy me but he couldn't really figure out what to do - apparently it was hysterical) i think tantrums CAN have to do with spoiling, but mostly it comes down to personality. although i no longer throw tantrums, i'm still a highly emotional, dramatic person while my brother is even-tempered and very calm. my parents raised us the same way, so the "spoiling makes tantrums" theory doesn't hold up.

MuppetsForDinner 3 years 12 weeks

"just that because a kid challenges what they're told, asks question, wants to play with others and gets upset because they don't always get their way doesn't mean that they are spoiled." Regardless of what you call this, it equals a very difficult child that will probably have a hard time getting along with others/dealing with disappointments. Unfortunately, denial only hurts your child as it's near impossible to help the situation without first accepting what's going on.