All these stories fall into the broader category of ‘choosing beggars,’ people who don’t seem to have the means to get what they want but will also turn down a good deal just because it isn’t perfect for them. On the surface, there is a sort of logic at play. Imagine going to a food court and asking every single table for a free meal. The vast majority will, at best tell you ‘no,’ some will probably flip you off and call you crazy. But you don’t need everyone to give you a free meal, just one person.

So by attempting this sort of ridiculous strategy at scale, you might find at least one person who will give you what you want. This is perhaps annoying to most of us since the average person wants to be helpful and polite and will feel bad for saying no. But it’s generally a waste of time that could be used to find or acquire the cash to just buy a meal yourself. In this article, we have a special breed of choosing beggars, not one that is playing the odds, but one that, for some undiscernible reason, thinks they are entitled to some sort of special treatment.

The common thread is that all of these are parents. And not just normal parents, but deeply entitled parents. This combination can be amusing from a distance, but deeply annoying if one has to deal with them up close. Studies show that entitlement is associated with poorer social engagement, more inappropriate behavior, and, most importantly, decreased emotional regulation strategies. If we can be permitted to flip the logic here, people who are socially inept might not even understand just how entitled they are acting.

The origins of entitlement are pretty varied. Some use it as a bizarre coping mechanism to counter the fact that they haven’t gotten what they wanted in life. If we romanticize a belief in karma or cosmic justice, people who are down on their luck might believe that the universe, or more specifically a Facebook marketplace seller, owes them something. This is never actually the case, but it leads to a cycle where they think they are mistreated, leading to more entitlement. The engine for this whole psychology is simply delusions.

On the other hand, people who grew up spoiled internalize the idea that they just deserve special treatment and struggle to comprehend that random people who don’t know them aren’t going to just hand over items or large discounts. We can all relate to the disappointment of not getting what you want, but most well-adjusted adults also understand that it’s generally the default setting. I wake up with the desire for a four-month paid vacation pretty much every day, but I don’t lose my mind when it doesn’t just materialize out of thin air for me.

It’s not just internet users that suffer from aggressive and entitled parents, research suggests that their children, the ‘card’ these adults often play, also end up doing worse. Parental engagement around the house tends to bring positive effects, but parental engagement at the child’s school was connected to lower academic performance. Potentially worse, the wrong kind of parental engagement also teaches this entitlement to the kids, who will no doubt then embody it in the future. 

Add in the general ignorance of everyday life and you get people who think fifty dollars is enough for a week's worth of work with kids, that gaming systems should just be free, and next-day home delivery of items that they demand a 90% discount on. The cocktail of deranged and entitled does create some potent viewing experiences, but one can’t help but feel bad for the individuals who have to deal with these people. Even worse, the kids that will be raised by them in the fantasy world where one can get expensive items free of charge based on the concept of cosmic justice.