I used to babysit for my sisters, and my kids as I explained did work around our house. DH told them how he used to do an annual cleanup of their house's chimneys and because the kitchen stove made a mess of the walls, he washed them down regularly for his mum. There was definitely a lot of work in our house with no servants had seven people's needs to be attended to, so for one person to have all the responsibility was just impossible. One of them coached rowing and another worked at a local bakery for a while, another one built a barbecue and he and the other brother helped with major cleanup jobs in the garden. This is when they were about to leave home. Mine still do handyman jobs for us when they visit, and they sort out my computers with upgrades and hard drive clean ups. I hope they'll make their kids do chores, it's important for kids to know that work doesn't magically get done while they're playing computer games.

From age 14, I've done summer jobs, every summer. The last couple of years before I finished my education, I opted for weekend jobs or night shifts. I was in it for the money.

Summer jobs were shit thirty years ago. They're even more shit now. Minimum wage buys a lot less now than it did in 1980.

I don't think there's any problem with the teenage attitude towards work today. I think there's a problem with the economics of the situation.

From Funny Pictures, #214

cherries wrote: