#52 Stories--Story #23

How did you earn your very first paycheck as  a teenager or young adult? how did that first job influence the career choices you've made since?

My first paying job--besides babysitting for people in our ward--was a summertime childcare/lifeguard job at Goldsmith's Seeds just outside of town.  I was hired because I told them that we had a pool and I knew how to swim.  Looking back now I think they were vastly overestimating my lifesaving abilities.  Luckily I never had those skills tested.

I watched the employee's primary school aged children at the company pool, on site, for the summer days while the kids were out of school.  It was fairly easy work, and for only a few children at a time,  I believe I made about $3.50/hour.  I enjoyed the sunshine and the pool.  And played with the kids or watched them play in the water to kill the time.

My next real job was as a sales clerk at the local Beverly's Fabric shop in town.  I had to demonstrate my ability to sew--brought in some of the things that I had made--and also was required to show I knew how to count back change as the register didn't tell you the correct change amounts like they do now.  I also was quickly assigned to close the shop after the evening or weekend shifts. It wasn't exciting work, but I did get to practice my minimal conversational Spanish skills as well as my math and calculations in adding lengths and widths to figure sizes for people.  I got pretty good with fabric content and use and wear of it.  I did more sewing and developed those skills well enough that once I left for college and started my sophomore year, I found another fabric clerk job as my first job in Utah.  I remember when I left home I was making $4.75/hour and my sister took my job at Beverly's for the same starting rate I had when I left.  (ARGH!)

One Of The Four Letter Words

Our FHE lesson last night was on work.  Can you tell it was my turn to give the lesson?  I used the line from the Proclamation on the Family that says "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

They hate it when I use that kind of revelation against them.

Together we made a list of work project that our house and the surrounding area need this summer.  I asked the family to commit to me that instead of watching hours upon hours of Netflicks episodes of old sitcoms or Discovery channels shows or whatever else they have been doing for two weeks of summer they would do an hour or two of these projects each day they were home.  Now that I'm working every day it is overwhelming to me to think of this stuff piling up and I dno't have the hours in the day to do it with them.

Here is the list we came up with:

* help Dad fix the sprinkler system
* power wash the exterior of the house
* pull the dandelions in the lawn
* level the dirt by the shed
* keep lawns mowed/trimmed/edged regularly
* paint the laundry room?
* scrub the cabinets in the house
* cleans the blinds in the house
* add end-caps on the pergola?
* build ramp for the shed
* get rid of the pile of recycled bricks (give away or haul away)
* make trip to the dump
* clean windows inside and out
* dust cobwebs off ceilings and corners
* wash & vacuum all the cars

We'll see how it goes.  And I'll be sure to keep you posted.  Wish us luck.

Splash In To Summer

Swim team sign ups for the summer recreation team have begun.  This year we had a great system to let the families with kids who have been swimming sign up first.  Priority goes to those who had already previously committed.  I was planning on working the sign ups this week.  Luckily for me my work schedule accommodated that.  I enjoy seeing everyone again after the long cold winter break.  But the Recreation Center had it all figured out, and it ran much more smoothly!

Meanwhile, The Girl has been hired to work the pool's front desk, as well as the snack shack.  And she believes she will also get to help coach the younger swimmers, as she has in passed years.

The Boy just interviewed to assistant coach the little kid swimmers too.  He loves doing that and does really quit well with the tiniest kids on the team.  He is on the list work the snack shack again.  He is thrilled.

We've been very lucky to get the kids in to work at the pool.  It is a perfect teenage job.  I don't want them working during school, if they can help it.  Studies are their main priority during the school year.  But in the summer--the rules change and they can work a lot of hours, still see their friends and make a little money and learn to take orders from a different adult than me.  And that helps all of us.

Bring on the heat!

All In The Day's Work...For Mom

He's A Workin' Man

Yesterday was The Boy's first day of work.  He just got a job with The Girl, working at our city pool's snack bar.  It is a job he wanted almost as soon as The Girl started there.  But this is the first year that the manager there has hired boys.

You see, the storage room for the snack bar paper good, etc is accessible one of two ways.  The more cumbersome way is out the building and all the way around to the exterior entrance of the the storage room.  The easiest is through the women's locker room.  Thus girls only, to this point.  However, being a city facility and needing to heed the "equal opportunity employer" statute, Cheryl--the snack bar manager--was told by the city that she needed to hire a boy or two.

The Girl happened to be working the day this edict was made and Cheryl was fretting about finding the "right" kind of boy who would do the work, not flirt too much with the girls, and make the trip the long way to the storage room when he needed to go.  The Girl, said "What about my brother?"  And Cheryl asked "Does he still want to work here?"  To which The Girl answered, "Uh.  Yeah."

So The Boy was hired without so much as a n interview.  Cheryl is not only the manager down there she also has worked as a teacher's aid at our elementary school and I credit her and one other teacher's aid with helping The Boy learn how to read in the 1st and 2nd grades.  They were fantastic for him.  And he knows how important they are to him too.  Plus, they all like each other.  Not a bad back story to getting a summer job.

Yesterday he worked about 5 hours and he seemed to do fine.  The stories he shared when he got home were more amusing to me because I know many of the lifeguards that wouldn't believe he was working there--the only boy--surrounded by these lovely young women.  But he told them he certainly was working in the snack bar and having a marvelous time.  These almost-high school-senior-lifeguards seemed to feel that he was the luckiest kid working at the pool this summer.

I think he might think that too.  But today will be the real test.  He and The Girl work the full day (1-8 PM) together.  If they can do this job all summer without wanting to kill each other, I feel that will be a "payday" for this mom.