I've got a real problem with children being described as "spoiled rotten"

[Tansy_Gold]

42. No, it's not a demeaning put down. It's a description

And it means they've been spoiled rotten by someone else. Usually parents, but sometimes grandparents or others.

Often the description isn't used to the child but rather about them when discussing them with, one would hope, the person or persons doing the spoiling. We don't go up to a tantrum-throwing four-year-old and say, "Stop it, you spoiled rotten little brat." We do tell the parents, "Your tantrum-throwing four-year-old is turning into a spoiled little brat." And the parents need to know it.

Children will have tantrums and they will have meltdowns, but by the time they are old enough to be in social situations -- whether that's pre-school or kindergarten or whatever -- they should have learned to behave appropriately. The child who hasn't learned to behave, who knows that a tantrum will get him whatever it is that he wants and isn't getting, is indeed a spoiled rotten little brat. And his parents need to know that if they're ever going to fix it.

Whether they do fix it or not is another issue entirely.