Being a retired police officer, i have experienced this situation many times. one incident involved a 12 year old boy. his parents called the police, because their son was “out of control”. i arrived. his parents advised me that their son was upset because they would not buy him a cellphone. i approached their son in his bedroom and had a talk. in this child’s room, was every game imaginable and his parents had given him just about everything. his room proved this. our discussion was profitable. i told their son that his parents could not afford a cellphone at this time. i also told him that his attitude toward his parents was unacceptable. we talked for about 15 minutes. i advised their son that he only had one set of parents and once they are gone, they are gone. i further advised him to just wait a short while longer and maybe his parents could afford a cellphone for him. he said he understood. i think asked, “how about a hug for your parents?” we walked back into his living room and he gave his mom and dad a big hug and apologized for his attitude. the parents could not thank me enough. a few months later, i ran into his parents. they were at WalMart purchasing their son a cellphone. again, they thanked me and said their son did a 180 degree turnaround, after my discussion with him. mind you, this is the exception to the rule and not the normal. but, in my line of work, you take what you can and this made my month.