Am i being selfish and spoilt?

Question

I'm 17 and in my last year of school.

I believe i'm strongly in need of a laptop to help me in my studies. My mother disagrees.

Her arguement is that I have a computer at home I can use and she does not believe I need one until I am at university.

My arguement is that it'll be easier for me to continue assignments at school in my study periods. I can type my notes up straight away and I will have acess to the internet in my classes.

I do not have a part time job because my mother wont let me get on. She says I must concentrate on school work and I have sports practice nearly every day after school.

It's not my birthday until November.

Am I being unresonable and spoilt?

Jeff J- I actually do community service quite often. I'm well aware of how the 'other half live'. I do make contributions from my own pocket. Which is more than any 17 year I know does!

My school doesn't have very much money and we don't have computers that are suitable.

I wasn't suggesting my mum pay for all of it. I did actually ask for it to be my Christmas and Birthday present for LAST year which I didn't get. But she said no.

I don't think I being selfish. My mum wants me to do the best I can, I don't believe I can do my best with out the technology that the majority of my peers have.

My school principal told my mum that it should not get a part time job as I need to make the most of this year and study my hardest. I would seriously love to get a job.

I don't live in America, and my mum will only buy me a Mac which is $2000 NZD.

I've been doing really well at school. I've got the highest grade in EVERYTHING i have handed in this year. ( In my english essay I got excellence and I got 100% in my geography assignment)

University doesn't start until January 2008, I have more than a few months to wait.

Answer 1

Honey, you are in exactly the same situation as I was last year. So no you are not being selfish, neither is your mom wrong. You will def need a laptop for your college because then everything is online, lecture notes, assignments, communications, etc. But in high school however, a laptop is not essential. You can still take notes without laptop and high school classnotes are not even important or away from what's in the books, college lectures are just wierd and unexpected, if you don't take notes in class, you are screwed. You can still use your home computer to do your homeworks and assignments. Ask for a laptop for your college, before your birthday, and tell your mom I SAID you cannot live without a laptop in college. It will make your life 80% easier. I'm sure you can wait and survive through the last year of high school without a laptop, but you'll def need it for college. I'm 95% sure that she knows that already if she has been through college herself too. She will be so happy to hear that you have come to point that you know a laptop is not a big academic help in high school, but you want it for college. Good Luck Miss.

Answer 2

Well I don't know your financial situation, but if the cost is not an issue and it is simply a matter of if you "need" it or not, then I would say you are not being unreasonable at all as a laptop can be a very efficient tool to have at your disposal, especially when it comes to school work; as you stated, it could indeed enable you to more easily continue work that you previously started (i.e. something you began the previous night at home), whereas without a laptop you would always have to transfer your work from computer-to-computer. You could also run into the problem of there being no available desktops in the library/study-room or wherever you have access to computers at your school, so the fact that you know you can always have instant access to a computer with a laptop can be quite beneficial. Additionally, it would be very beneficial for taking notes, as it is most certainly easier to type everything out than it is to have to hand-write everything, especially if you have to take a lot of notes in each class; and it would probably also make it much easier for you to keep track of your notes and find what you need faster, since you could just save all of your notes as documents in a folder, rather than having to have them all on several sheets of paper.

I would say if you really feel strongly about this, you should talk with your mom again and list all of the reasons as to why purchasing a laptop will only benefit your education and your studies, and hopefully she will at least consider purchasing you one.

Answer 3

Normally I'd say anybody complaining approximately how so much anybody spends on their gift is simply being materialistic. But you do have a factor. The handiest factor I would argue in his case is that youngsters (I'm assuming the son and daughter are round prime university age) have highly-priced tastes and normally you must spend out just a little bit extra for offers. When you grow older you study that there extra primary matters in existence than a flash watch or the modern-day mobilephone mobilephone. But £eighty for an engagement ring!! Are you certain that wasn't only a deposit or anything? There perhaps an additional receipt someplace with the entire stability paid. I recall anybody mentioned to me that an engagement ring will have to fee a minimum of one months revenue. And that christmas gift! That's the style of factor I received my sister while I used to be a child, and all I had used to be my pocket cash! But it's the suggestion that counts, and he certainly did not placed so much "suggestion" into it so it counts for not anything. Straighteners and candles sounds to me just like the style of reward a person could purchase on Christmas Eve, simply earlier than ultimate time. He wishes to get dwelling however has yet another reward to shop for, so he simply appears for some thing in an effort to do as a reward for a girl.

Answer 4

if you really need it as you say try to convince her of your argument, but I have a question: Will you really continue tour assignments at school? I mean does it deserve it? besides why would u need to access the internet in your classes? will it be of extra help? or just a showing off.
for the part time job, your mother is right, you don't need to work, u have enuf studies to concentrate on, so don't feel sad for that.
Hold on it's your final year, only a couple of months to go before university, until then make use of what u have at home and don't hurry you'll get what u want when its time comes
Good Luck

Answer 5

You don't need a laptop. I would wait until you are in college. The lifespan of a laptop is only 3 maybe 4 years old before they either become outdated or damaged.

Most people have made it through high school without laptops and have done just fine. Sure, there is the minor inconvenience of having to go to one physical location to do your work and not being portable.

I think the whole concept of portability is the only advantage to laptops and that is hard to justify spending tons of money for in high school.

Being portable becomes more of a requirement at the college level.

Answer 6

Doesn't your highschool have a library with PC's? Even when I was in university, I got fine without a laptop because it was so damned wired. If you really so adamant then settle for a 256-512MB USB jump Drive instead, you can even pay for it out of your own pocket money. It's served me quite well wherever I went without lugging a laptop.

Answer 7

While I think you have good reasons for wanting a laptop, you have to remember the kind of expense it entails. If your mother says that you can have one when you go to university, then I'd be happy with that, even if going home to use the desktop is a little inconvenient.

Just remember - some of us didn't even have a desktop!

Answer 8

Do you have a job? If not then thats pretty sad that you're 17 years old and don't even have a job. And you do relize laptop computer are extremely cheap, right? You can get a decent one for 300$ USD.

In a way you're being "spoilt". Also you do relize that when you're 18, you're an adult and can get a job. And I find it hard to believe that your mother wont let you get a job. If she doesn't then she has some issues.

Answer 9

You don't need a laptop for school. Write things down in a book with a pen. You should not be on the internet in the classroom, you should be listening to the teacher.

I think you should stop asking your mother for expensive things. She seems very caring and thoughtful to me!

Answer 10

Hrmm...NO! because if you are considered spoilt then i must be worse.

I recently got a laptop computer from my dad last year as i did really well in a examination.

This year, i moved to Norway. And almost all of the students in my class has a MAC. So i asked for a MAC comp.

And. i got it.

I think the comp is REALLY important! since I have tonnes of work and they are almost never completed in time. When i have a comp. i can do it on the train ride i take to school each day.

BTW, i am 16