GraceOMalley_IHB
New member
I ask because I see kids now well into their graduate school years that have never held a job. And I wonder if thats normal, or if its entitlement, or parents overcompensating or what.
I was 9 when I started a paper route. I delivered 300 papers, 365 days a year, alone, with no one helping me or doing it for me for the next 5 years. I got up at 4:30am to fold and stuff papers, and no matter what the weather, I did it, with no ones help. Sometimes nearly choking myself to death with the bag I had to use to deliver them with. Sometimes even having to use a pillar for leverage so I wouldn't fall over.
When I was 13 I had a job working in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant bussing and doing dishes. I served beer and wine before I was 14 years old. I did this work under the table and the chinese waiters used to flick me really hard on the back of the head when they didnt think I was working fast or hard enough. By the time I was 13 my parents stopped paying for my clothes and for my activities. I paid for them. I went to Europe on an exchange when I was 16, and I paid for it, not just working 3 jobs for 6 months before it but also working illegally in the countries I was living in.
I dont think that kids now should have to do that, but I wonder sometimes at what point all this entitlement begins to interfere with their growth into productive adults. I learned to take nothing for granted, that i could expect nothing from anyone but me. That my survival was up to me, and not to look to my parents or anyone else for help. My parents did ok, but there were a crap load of kids to support and they were totally outnumbered and overwhelmed. I paid for my own college, and my then husbands bills, which meant I never got to finish. Yes I know I should have but it just didnt work out for me. To this day, this is not something I easily admit.
Anyhow I wonder, when did you have your first job? I dont really think Im that unusual, but that being said, I don't talk much about my past.
I was 9 when I started a paper route. I delivered 300 papers, 365 days a year, alone, with no one helping me or doing it for me for the next 5 years. I got up at 4:30am to fold and stuff papers, and no matter what the weather, I did it, with no ones help. Sometimes nearly choking myself to death with the bag I had to use to deliver them with. Sometimes even having to use a pillar for leverage so I wouldn't fall over.
When I was 13 I had a job working in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant bussing and doing dishes. I served beer and wine before I was 14 years old. I did this work under the table and the chinese waiters used to flick me really hard on the back of the head when they didnt think I was working fast or hard enough. By the time I was 13 my parents stopped paying for my clothes and for my activities. I paid for them. I went to Europe on an exchange when I was 16, and I paid for it, not just working 3 jobs for 6 months before it but also working illegally in the countries I was living in.
I dont think that kids now should have to do that, but I wonder sometimes at what point all this entitlement begins to interfere with their growth into productive adults. I learned to take nothing for granted, that i could expect nothing from anyone but me. That my survival was up to me, and not to look to my parents or anyone else for help. My parents did ok, but there were a crap load of kids to support and they were totally outnumbered and overwhelmed. I paid for my own college, and my then husbands bills, which meant I never got to finish. Yes I know I should have but it just didnt work out for me. To this day, this is not something I easily admit.
Anyhow I wonder, when did you have your first job? I dont really think Im that unusual, but that being said, I don't talk much about my past.