National Entitlement Awareness Day

I'm about as tired as I've ever been but I did it.  I ran 16 miles over the course of 30 hours on about 2 hours sleep and while I sure didn't set any speed records - even for myself - I did my best and it really was fun!

I'll write more tomorrow and put up pictures of my crazy, wonderful, grueling, beautiful last couple days of sweating and bonding and running with Team Loosli in the Grand Teton Relay.

But before I can go to sleep (and wow, my bed is going to feel good), I just have to announce that tomorrow, Monday, August 22 is National Entitlement Awareness Day.  Did you know that?  Well, neither did I until my parents and the publisher of their new book declared this new national day.  I guess that really, any of us could call any day anything, so while maybe you wouldn't find this national day on any regular calendar of events, August 22 might as well be National Entitlement Awareness Day.

What does this mean, you might ask?  Well, it means that on this day, 100's of bloggers will be blogging about our national epidemic of entitlement - you know, the idea that we should have want we want and have it now, the idea that someone else should take care of us and that most of our problems are someone else's fault.  These ideas have led to so much financial and personal crises in our generation - from home foreclosures to frivolous lawsuits to sad divorces.  And these same ideas are being preached to our kids by the media and by their friends right and left.  We need to build family systems that can teach our children what we really want them to know and steer them clear of the entitlement attitudes and behaviors that can not only drive us crazy as their parents ("I NEED an iPhone - EVERYONE else has one," "He made me hit him because he was being mean," "My friend James never has to do the dishes"....), but can take our children into big bad problems later in their lives.  

I know I've blogged about my parents new book before but in order to be a good daughter and a good friend to all those reading my blog, I just have to let you know these three things:

1.  Delayed gratification, appreciation of what you've got, and owning your own behavior are notions I'm working very hard to teach my children using a lot of the ideas and methods my parents used to raise me.  My parents have spelled out their best tried-and-true ideas in their new book, The Entitlement Trap: How to Rescue Your Child with a New Family System of Choosing, Earning, and Ownership. I can tell you first- hand that their ideas work. I really really want all parents to have this book.

2.  If you buy the book before it actually comes out, you will not only get a great deal (it's about $12 if you pre-order but it will retail for $18 when it's actually released), you will also get a chance to win some big fat prizes thanks to this GIVEAWAY they are doing.  The grand prize is a free registration for you and your spouse to attend the upcoming Power of Moms Couples Retreat and it includes free luxury accommodations and airfare.

3.  If at least 10,000 people pre-order the book, there's a great chance the book will debut on the NYTimes Bestseller list. Once a book is a bestseller, way more people buy it.  Parents who really need the book but wouldn't otherwise think to look for it will find it and buy it because it's a bestseller.  They'll love it and it'll help their families so much.  So please forward on this information to everyone you know and encourage them to pre-order the book!

Anyway, I'm so not into selling stuff and I pretty much turn down all requests I receive to post about giveaways but this is one giveaway that I really think matters.  And I'd love to have some of my blog readers win some of the prizes! Click HERE to learn all about how to pre-order and get into the giveaway.

I hope this makes sense.  I'm seriously a little delirious....

I'm off to bed.