The Battle With The Entitled

By: Stuart Knight (Founder and CEO) | October 1, 2025

DISCLAIMER: While reading this week’s blog, I encourage you to check in with yourself to see how the words below make you feel.  If you feel triggered, instead of taking the easy route of blocking future newsletters, try sitting with the information, and ask whether there is an opportunity to grow, and to level up with love.

So, let me tell you a story of something that recently happened to me.  Every Monday, my daughter has back to back dance classes from 5-7pm, which leaves me often looking for a spot to park myself for two hours to catch up on work.  Luckily, there is a courtyard across the street from her class, with a smattering of rusty metal chairs, and one or two tables that look like they were built by a high school woodworking class, which is open to the public.  

I found a quiet spot, plunked myself down and began to work.  Within about twenty minutes of me being there, three moms, and their three corresponding daughters (and one son), ranging between the ages of about eight and ten, entered the courtyard to find a seat.  They grabbed three chairs, and placed them approximately five feet behind me.  This struck me as being a bit peculiar, since I would personally be inclined to place my chair further away from a person I can clearly see is working quietly on their computer.  Alas, that would require someone to realize they share planet earth with other people, and that’s not easy for everyone.   

Before long, the ladies were laughing, talking loudly and yelling at their kids across the courtyard every so often, which prompted me to put on my earbuds, and search for, “Relaxing Spa Music” on Spotify.  That seemed to dampen the disruption for a short while, but not long after their four kids had now decided to move their game directly next to my table.  One game for the girls, while the boy smashed a brick he had found about three feet from me.  So, picture this scene.  The courtyard is about a quarter the size of a football field, and although there is ample space everywhere, I’m sitting at one of only two tables available with three women cackling five feet away, while their children are screaming right next to me.  And not one of the adults stops to think, “I wonder if we are intruding on that person’s space”?  Baffled, I decided to keep my head down, and not say anything.

However, about ten minutes later, a fourth mom entered the courtyard chasing a puppy that was off its leash, which was now bounding toward the girls.  It turns out this fourth mom is part of the posse.  Within seconds, the puppy, which obviously hasn’t been trained (but don’t mention that to the owner), is now jumping all over my legs like I’m made of tubesteak, while the screaming girls try to play with him.  The parents still don’t move.  Not knowing what to do, I looked at the owner with an expression that clearly said, “WTF”, but before she could do anything, the dog ran away only to jump on a man who was trying to conduct a phone call.  

I was hoping that by now my starring role in the movie entitled, “Revenge Of The Narcissists” had come to an end, and that I had been replaced by another actor.  Sadly, this was not the case.  Within one minute, my meaty legs had attracted the attention of the puppy, and I again became its makeshift climbing post.  It now finally dawned on the owner that I wasn’t the co-purchaser of this animal, so she attempted to pull the dog out from under the table.  When I tried to help by grabbing the little terror, she told me that I was doing it the “wrong way”.  Amazingly, I was now being scolded for doing a half-ass job at a job that I never applied for.  

It turned out that this had become my internal “final straw”, where I stood up, turned to the moms and said in a very calm voice, “You know, I’m going to leave now, but before I do I just want to say that I have young children as well, and something we try to teach them is to have spacial awareness.  We tell them to remember that we share spaces with everyone, and to try and act in a way that doesn’t impede on whatever others are trying to do.  I’ve been sitting here trying to work for a while, and even though there's tons of space, yourselves, your children and your dog are all over me.”

SO, WHAT KIND OF RESPONSE DO YOU THINK I GOT?

Something tells me that before you even finished reading what I said to these parents, that you already knew the wrath that was about to come my way.  And you knew that because people who act this way are as likely to admit their fault as it is likely the artist Bad Bunny would be chosen to headline the Super Bowl.  What?  Did that happen?  Dear God, please save us while you can!

Ok, so the first response that I got from calmly sharing this point of view with my fellow parents was, “Well, I guess you must be a better parent than we are”.  Can you imagine the restraint I had to pull off to not say, “Ummmm, yeah that’s about as obvious as Bad Bunny being the worst choice ever as a headliner for the Super Bowl!”  Instead, I said, “No, I’m not saying I’m a better parent, but I am saying that there is an opportunity to parent differently.”  And sure, I get that this sounds like the same thing, but it was the best that I could come up with while getting the stink eye from four moms.

The next response I heard was, “That really comes across like you’re trying to shame us”.  Oh gawd!  Don’t you love that one?  For some people, I swear they must wake up each morning thinking, “I can’t wait to pull out my shaming card today!  If someone asks me if I’ve seen the stapler at work, I’m going to ask them if they are trying to shame me for not knowing where it is!” And I chuckle when someone uses this word, because they don’t even realize that they are in fact trying to shame someone for having the gall to “shame them”.  That reality completely goes over their head.  Are you trying to shame me?  You should be ashamed of yourself!

The next mom to pipe up said, “They’re just being kids”.  Oh boy, here we go!  The classic, “I don’t have to parent, because my kids are just being kids” line.  And for the record, that particular mom is absolutely right.  The last thing I would ever expect was for these young girls and boy to know they were impeding on someone else’s space.  Again, I have kids, and they have an uncanny ability to be assholes without even knowing it.  And when that happens, I don’t blame them, but rather use those moments to teach them the difference between being an asshole and being awesome.  This particular parent seemed to have missed the point that parents aren’t raising children, they are raising future adults.  In her mind, all adults should accept the behaviour of children because they don’t know better.  I’d love to be over at her house one day when one of her kids starts lighting matches in the living room, only to say, “I was going to stop her, but I didn’t want to get in the way of her exercising her childhood rights”.

The final response I received was from the dog mom, who told me, “You shouldn’t even be working here because this is a dog park”, to which I knew was an outright lie.  For starters, people don’t set up chairs and tables in the middle of dog parks.  Secondly, on both gates to the courtyard, there is a sign clearly stating that dogs are to be kept on their leash. However, when you want to win an argument with anyone, one of the best tactics is to gaslight the other person with lies.  I couldn’t help but think, “I’d be willing to bet my life savings that this white woman, living in a Democratic state, loathes a specific politician for gaslighting and lying, but feels completely justified when she does it herself”.  On top of that, think about the message she’s sending to these young kids.  Essentially she’s telling them that they should be able to do whatever they want, wherever they want, and if anyone calls them out for it, just lie and tell them it’s their fault.

On so many levels, from choosing where to sit, or encouraging their girls to pick another spot to play, or apologizing for your dog jumping on a stranger, these people missed multiple chances to level up with love. And I realize that I might appear to be simply using this platform to whine, or that some may feel like I should have been more tolerant.  To those people thinking that, I should point out that I’ve seen these same mothers acting this way countless times in the very same courtyard.  Plus, I believe there’s a fine line between being tolerant, and accepting poor behaviour.  Never calling out poor behaviour in the name of tolerance, I believe only greenlights more poor behaviour within society.  I also feel that by sharing my truth with total strangers, that I myself was trying to level up with love by inviting them to see things from a different perspective.  

This week’s message is meant to be a reminder of that.  If we truly want the world to become a better place, we must be willing to put in the work. We must be able to hear what others have to say, and then be willing to change. Whether it’s in the office, in our car, at the kitchen table, in the park or while sitting in the bleachers at the local hockey game, it’s our responsibility to open our eyes and look at ourselves to see how we are showing up.  If we have the courage to do that, we will see more opportunities to level up with love, and thus level up with life.

Much love,

Stuart

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