My children will not work in fast-food
During high school and college, I worked at the golden arches and my wife worked for the christian chicken sandwich guy. My kids will never do that. When I told this to my wife, her response astounded me."What's wrong with fast food?"
Growing up, I was ambitious. My first job was bagging groceries at the local C-Town where my mom worked. I was eight. I worked for tips. When it came time to get a job in high school, I fell into the trap that most kids do--I didn't think I had options. I thought that I was limited to the minimum wage work that most kids do: fast food joints, groceries stores, movie theaters and rentals. My mother thought those were my options and didn't push me. My wife thinks those are the options. Most people think those are the options.
Job options for kids are as open as the sky.
While looking at some incomplete ironing last week, I yearned for the day when my kids would be old enough to do it for me. Why not start a neighborhood laundry service? The kids could undercut the dry cleaning businesses by keeping less overhead (no rent) and labor costs (they're kids) while offering extra services like picking up (it's only down the street).
Park cars. Intern with a professional (lawyer, doctor, architect). Walk people between their cars and their destination in the dry comfort of an umbrella (weather permitting). Dumpster dive, wander garage sales and hit pawn shops and resell the finds online. Mentor at a summer camp or tutor in an after school program. If the work is generic, make sure the people aren't, even if it means starting a company themselves.
Kids can do the same things adults are supposed to do: Find their natural talents and interests and do it for money. For kids, this is much easier because there isn't the stress of needing the work to survive and the barrier for success is much lower when the alternative is $5.15/hr and smelling like french fries.
posted by Lachlan @ 11:39 PM
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