An interesting little fact is starting to creep up for those of us in or near their 40s, and it isn’t a pleasant one. We are paying the price for the entitled 20-somethings who are in the workforce, and we have to fight not to raise our own children the same way.

As a business owner, I already have had to endure on many occasions the shortsighted thinking of the 20s crowd who takes a job and doesn’t appreciate the long-term nature of success, the importance of benefits and the concept of loyalty. It is a generation that has been raised to want it all and want it now (if you don’t believe me, watch them use their phones to solve every problem that arises). It is a generation that didn’t have to check out books from the library and has very little respect for anything that takes time to research or analyze. In the workforce, 20-somethings want the big bucks and they want them now.

The problem with this concept is that they don’t have the job skills to demand the big bucks; they only have a huge self-esteem that doesn’t fit in their desks. Those of us in our 40s have to train and retrain, and train and retrain them as they come in and out of positions, which costs us time and a little bit of sanity.

Other business owners I talk to share the same experiences, and are shocked at how often this age group is leaving good long-term career opportunities. Their resumes are full of jobs where they stayed six to 12 months at the most and in interviews, they constantly remark that they left jobs for more money. A temporary high, really. How much more money? Was it worth losing your health insurance? Was it worth losing the match on that 401(k)? Did you consider the people and their commitment to you? Did you consider the long-term upside potential that would have probably paid you way more in the long run?

In the meantime, those of hanging in our 40s have to pick up the slack for this generation. We were a generation raised before the Internet, cellphones and instant gratification. We had to check out books from the library and actually understood the Dewey Decimal System. We had to read and research thoroughly before answering questions. Our answers were based on fact and not just the opinions of others. We didn’t get ribbons for participating and nobody had a teacher who handed out a homework pass because we merely did what was expected of us. We learned that hard work and long-term planning paid off in the long run and we knew we had to work hard, for years, before we could expect the good life.

Now, we are stuck. Our careers are challenged because it is difficult to find young employees who are looking for hard work. This impacts the workplace and makes us work longer and harder hours. Our young children are being subjected to gobs of self-esteem and everyone constantly telling them how amazing they are, and they firmly believe it. They are used to instant gratification and walk around holding thousands of dollars of technology really designed to make them stupid.

The exhaustion we feel from dealing with the 20s crowd and the teenagers is starting to show. We also have parents who are getting older, and they will need our care and compassion. We aren’t the typical sandwich generation because there is no relief in sight. The next generation is not going to take care of us. We are going to have to take care of them.

How can we possibly change this? The 20s crowd is going to have to face a harsh reality. They will ultimately lose their jobs to people in their 50s who understand loyalty and hard work. We are going to have to let them fall and go back and learn the hard knocks. They will have to work hard like we all did and want for things rather than just get them.

Our younger children still can be saved from this cycle if we back up from the current system and start over. Children don’t need to have technology in their hands at all times. We need to stop them and make them build forts or go outside and run around and be social. They need to be exposed to hard work and chores so that they appreciate how things get done.

We must stop catering to them, or those of us in our 40s are ultimately going to crack under the pressure. We must focus on ourselves in healthy positive ways, and realize that our children don’t need constant extracurricular activity to be happy and healthy. We can stop this train if we admit that we are on it, and stop acting like those of us in their 40s really can carry the burden of society on our own.