Kids aren't the only ones who act like spoiled brats
By Chuck Hansen CONTRIBUTING WRITER

During a recent trip to the movies, Chuck Hansen was reminded of humanity's habit of taking things for granted.

Recently I decided to spend an afternoon with my kids, Madison, 9, and Daniel, 11, who are out of school for the summer.

First we went to Cold Stone Creamery, which I almost always mistakenly call Stone Cold Creamery, which sounds more like a dairy farm run by professional wrestlers than an ice cream place. There we had custommade ice cream and joked with each other around a patio table.

Then we went to the movies to see "Ratatouille." We ended up loving it, and Madison was very proud of the fact that it had been her recommendation.

It was a wonderful afternoon, and on the way out of the movie theater, the kids asked for 50 cents each to play an arcade game "just once." Now, fun doesn't always come cheap, and between the ice cream, movie tickets and popcorn and drinks for the show, I'd already spent more than $50. But of course it was worth it, and I was happy to give them each a couple of quarters, and they ran excitedly to the arcade.

After a brief conference, they picked out the claw game to play, planning to team up to get one particular stuffed animal out of the Plexiglas box.

Do you know the claw game? It's the one where you position an open claw over a pile of toys, push the button, and the claw drops down into the pile. Then it raises up, and as it does, the claw will close - hopefully on the desired toy, carrying it over to a chute, where the toy is dropped into the waiting hands of the player.

It sounds easy, and it looks even easier, and some kids are pretty good at it, like my niece Erika, who snags a toy nearly every time. But most kids aren't so lucky because, as with any game of chance, the deck is stacked in favor of the house.

First, there's the 45 medium-sized stuffed animals wedged and compressed into a six-inch layer at the bottom. You'd have trouble getting one out using a crowbar and dynamite.

Then there's the "claw," the compression power of which makes a "dead fish" handshake feel like a Darth Vader death grip. It's only by astronomical luck that the claw ever closes successfully on one of the stuffed toys.

To further tilt the playing field, the most desirable toys are wrapped in plastic bags, so that no wayward tail or trunk can be snagged by a lucky child. The kid could sooner palm a full-sized greased basketball than successfully grab one of these toys.

Sure enough, Madison dropped her shot right on top of a stuffed snake in a plastic sack, but came away with a clawful of air. Daniel adjusted his approach based on Madison's experience, yet also was unsuccessful, and 15 seconds after they'd gotten the quarters from me, they were standing disappointed in front of the rigged machine.

Just as predictably, they then whirled around: "Can I have 50 more cents?"

The money I'd already spent, their original promise of playing "just once," the advancing hour, and the danger of spoiling them all ran through my head, and the answer was an easy "no."

Daniel took it in stride, but Madison… not so much.

"But dad!" she half-sobbed, half-whined. "It's just 50 more cents! Just 50 cents! Pleasssssse!"

"No, we've done enough today," I said.

She decided some additional volume might help.

"DAD! IT'S JUST 50 CENTS! IT WILL TAKE A MINUTE!"

"No."

"DAAAAAADDDDD! I'll pay you back! I'll use my own money! PLEASE!"

All the way across the parking lot and to the car she serenaded me, where she finally gave up and dove into a grumpy funk in the backseat.

You may think she was acting like a spoiled child. But she wasn't. She was acting like a human being.

For a moment, think of the things that really get you upset:

• Spilling a drink across a restaurant table

• Missing a traffic light because the guy at the front of the line is fiddling with his radio

• Your neighbor's dog pooping in your yard

• Etc., etc.

They drive you crazy, don't they? They hack you off to no end. Me, too. These are the things that have my wife slapping me across the head at night to stop me from grinding my teeth in my sleep.

Then think about this: the vast majority of people who have ever lived have had to scrape and scramble to survive. They have been hunted by predators and other people. Their life expectancy has hovered between 30 and 45. People have been ravaged by all manner of diseases, from the worst cancers to the mildest infections. Some or even all children in most families died before they were grown, and often the mother died during childbirth. Throughout history, people at best have been severely limited in opportunity by their religion or race or gender or nationality, and at worst they have been slaughtered for it - men, women and children. Traveling outside of the 100 miles around your home was rare, all-enveloping war was constant, education was nonexistent, warm homes and clothing were hard to come by, food was often in short supply and starvation was common, particularly in times of trouble.

Forget human history: consider the people around the world today. A huge percentage of the people alive today don't have access to regular food supplies, clean water, basic medical care, religious freedom, economic opportunity, shelter, clothing or political choice.

In the meantime, you and I have lived during the 60 most remarkable years in human history, in the most free and opportunity-filled land that has ever existed, during a period of unparalleled advancement in medicine, food production, economic prosperity, technology, entertainment, and on and on. We "enjoy" unprecedented political freedom, religious freedom, personal freedom and a myriad more freedoms.

And yet… we complain because we have to spend an additional two minutes waiting at a traffic light to get to our comfortable and safe home or because after a day of ice cream and movies, we didn't get to play the claw game a second time.

Aldous Huxley said, "Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted."

Was my daughter acting like a spoiled child? No, she was acting like a human being, which doesn't excuse the behavior, but it does explain it.

The ones who really have no excuse are you and I, who are old enough and smart enough to know better and still act like spoiled brats.

Chuck Hansen is a Midlothian-based writer, motivational speaker and humorist, and author of "Build Your Castles in the Air: Thoreau's Inspiring Advice for Success in Business (& Life) in 21st Century."