Responsibility

Is it just me or are people nowadays babied through life?

When I grew up, my parents always stressed the importance of school and education, of working hard to achieve our goals and dreams in life. The more effort you put into something, the greater the output, usually. While I was enrolled in many extra-curricular activities throughout the school year and the summers in-between and was signed up for lessons in various things, there were other kids who got to "go outside and play" all the time. Generally if I talk to most of my friends of my age (or older), they had similar upbringings. It was just a normal part of life to work hard to earn something.

Now we hear in the news that it's demeaning to kids and impairing their ability to "fit in" if they don't finish an assignment on time and a teacher gives them a poor grade in school. The answer to this is apparently to be extremely lenient, give the student an extension, and encourage them. If they don't do an assignment, it's fine, just mark them on the work that they have done. All students should pass their grade; how much trauma would it be if they got held back in school and all of their friends graduated?!

Seriously, real life does NOT work that way and I have no idea what the education system is thinking. If you're in the real-world and you're consistently late for your job, your boss will find someone else to do it. If you were supposed to do an "assignment" for a large construction company and you were slacking off and no work was done, you just cost someone thousands of dollars, so they'll find someone else to do it.

In the pharmacy, we see these poor attitudes trickling in year after year, consistently getting worse, and people are feeling an increased sense of entitlement. It's not even just in the young people anymore! We have older people (with grey hair) who are doing the same thing!

Conversation #1
Lady: I need to refill my birth control
Me: Oh, unfortunately you don't have any more repeats on it.
Lady: That is ridiculous! How can I NOT have any more repeats?
Me: You are just out of repeats because you used up everything the doctor gave you.
Lady: WHY DID YOU NOT CALL ME TO TELL ME I HAD NO MORE REPEATS? YOU ALSO DID NOT CALL ME TO TELL ME TO REFILL MY MEDICATION!!
Me: YOU are responsible for your own medication. You can see on your label how many repeats are remaining, and also you can see EVERY DAY when you take your pill how many pills are remaining. If you realize that you're coming down to only 1 week left of pills you should have either checked with the pharmacy to see if you had any more repeats, or made an appointment with your doctor.
Lady: Well, what am I supposed to do now, I have no more medication! You HAVE to give me more medication!
Me: Well, I could try to fax your doctor for repeats, you can make an appointment with them, or you can go to a walk in clinic.
Lady: That is ridiculous!
Me: Sorry, those are your only options. (In my mind I'm thinking that SHE is ridiculous!)

Conversation #2
Lady: I need my pills, but I have no more repeats. You need to fax my doctor as soon as possible. I AM LEAVING FOR VACATION TOMORROW. I HAVE to have my pills and you MUST give them to me.
Pharmacy team member: We will try our best to fax the doctor and ensure you get everything in the original bottles, with expiry dates on them, and in brand names after being specific to the doctor to write "no substitution" on the renewal. Hopefully they reply.
Lady: Well, I don't care how you do it, just make sure I get my pills!!

Why is it that people always come last minute to the pharmacy to get their things? You take your pills every day. You see how many pills are remaining. EVERY DAY. Every day the number decreases so the urgency increases! WHY WAIT UNTIL THERE IS ONE LEFT?!