princess genevieve

jeudi, novembre 16, 2006

Teen Work Force

Last night, my friend Jayne and I were in Dairy Queen, eating dessert. There was a kid there who was interviewing for a job. Which made me think about my first jobs.

I never worked in a Dairy Queen or McDonald's or any fast food restaurant. I never worked in a restaurant, period. I would be a terrible waitress, I have no doubts. You would order something, and I know I would make a face, like, "seriously? you're going to eat THAT?"

I also never worked at the Gap or Old Navy or any retail establishment. My cash register experience is limited to working the box office at Laurie Auditorium in college. That was my work study job and I actually loved it. My friend Angela, who was a year ahead of me in school, got me in there. It was an easy job - you answered the phone if it rang, talked to the secretary, and sold tickets if anyone came to the window. Otherwise, you did your homework or messed around on the computer. You could pick up extra hours by ushering at lectures and shows.

My first job was baby sitter. I started baby sitting around age 12. Now that I think about it, I am amazed parents left their children in my care at such a young age, but my mom was always home when I was baby sitting. Though I don't remember calling her much. I think I made the whopping salary of about $2 an hour to start.

My first real job was camp counselor. I worked at Barrie Day Camp for 5 summers, starting when I was 18 and had just graduated high school. Barrie is a Montessori school during the school year and they try to make it sort of a Montessori camp, too. We weren't supposed to use negatives with the kids. So, if a kid picked up a rock, instead of saying, "No rocks!" you were supposed to say "Put the rock down!" Or, for example, when my camper Sharon decided to walk through the creek instead of crossing the bridge like I told her to, instead of saying, "Sharon, don't walk through the creek" I said, "Sharon, get out of the creek." I don't know if it is more effective or not but I still talk to children that way, so I guess at least *I* was successfully conditioned by it.

Most summers, I was the counselor for a group of first grade girls. There were boys at the camp too but the groups were divided by gender, which I liked. One summer I was the assistant ceramics teacher. That was fun too.

What was your first job?

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6 Comments:

At 11/16/2006 1:03 PM, Blogger Mama said...

Your clients were BIG spenders compared to mine; at age 12 I was paid $0.50/hour for watching TWO children.

Now that I am a Mom myself, I have to question Mrs. Armstrong's judgement for leaving an infant and a toddler with a 12-year-old. (I must have projected one hell of a mature attitude!)

 
At 11/16/2006 1:26 PM, Blogger Amy M. said...

I worked at a children's resale shop where I was mostly paid in merchandise. Then, my first true retail job was at FAO Schwarz at Christmas and I HATED IT! They made me work in the Barbie area and I never played with Barbies when I was little. Then it was off to Bookstop which is a part of Barnes and Noble. And I haven't been able to get out of the book world ever since.

 
At 11/16/2006 1:36 PM, Blogger Genevieve said...

Dennis' Mom, I'm not even a mom and I question people's judgements in leaving 12 year old me with their kids... maybe they were desperate!

M, I never played with Barbies either! I wouldn't know what do in there.

 
At 11/16/2006 5:04 PM, Blogger Amie said...

My first job was babysitting also. I had a lot of experience from my younger siblings so lots of people called me.

My first "real" job was a cashier at a grocery store. The job itself wasn't so bad but I could not stand the middle managers. Gosh, put somebody in charge of a few high schoolers and all of a sudden they think they are God. I worked there for a year.

 
At 11/16/2006 5:15 PM, Blogger Genevieve said...

lots of people called me to sit, too, especially when I was in high school. I think they liked that if I couldn't do it, maybe one of my sisters could. Like our own baby-sitters club.

 
At 11/16/2006 9:16 PM, Blogger Paisley said...

hmmm... I was this weird child/teenager that didn't work. I got my first paid job when I was 20 and had just finished university. It was working in a payroll office where they still ran a manual pay roll each week.

 

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