REPOST 4/16/2007 NEWS FLASH...Life isn't fair!

It's another case of that sick sort of amusement. Hold onto your seats. It's going to be fun, right?

A friend was telling me tonight about having to appeal to school (elementary school) administration, because a teacher wouldn't let her send invitations to her son's friends for his birthday party, because she wasn't inviting the whole class to the party. The administration DID side with my friend...but not before listening to the teacher rant that it wasn't "fair" to the other kids who weren't being invited. She didn't want anyone's feelings hurt.

Reality check? Life isn't fair. They are training these kids to have an expectation that they will always get what they want, the concept of entitlement to a "fair life." That's half the problem with this world, that unrealistic expectation being fostered in children.

Life isn't fair. You won't be friends with everyone you meet. You can't expect everyone in the world to kowtow to your sorry little butt. You cherish what you do have and learn to dismiss those who aren't your friends.

I very rarely got invites to anything growing up. My own kids are the same. Do they obsess over it? No. Why should they?

Too many people are coddling too many kids and trying to make the world "fair" for them. What they are doing is raising kids who are ill prepared for the concept that nothing in life is a free ride and sometimes people don't do what you want them to. That's life.

You know, I can't mark the moment this started happening. It seems it must have been for a long time. Why do I say that? Because I see it a lot in supposed adults in business, sometimes in the publishing industry.

Let me make this clear. Life isn't fair. Yes, there are going to be people with money or connections who get NY contracts with books that aren't worth the paper they are printed on. That's life. No, you won't always get the cover you hope for, the advance you hope for, the media coverage you hope for... That's life.

Now, are you going to act like that spoiled eight-year-old and his family, the ones that think every child HAS to be invited to the party? Or, are you going to make professional choices that advance your career and conduct yourself like an adult and a professional author? Personally, I'd suggest the latter, but that's me.