Will work for food signs on the off ramps often tug at my heartstrings. And those poor saps holding the festively designed Going-Out-of-Business, Everything-Must-Go signs outside Macy’s or Linens ‘N Things or Circuit City or Home Depot or Foot Locker or Domain or …. well, the list is way, way too long.
Now I glare and lecture. Not to the poor dude (why always a guy?) holding the sign in the rain, but the blood relations strapped in the back seat. “STAY IN SCHOOL and do well or you’ll end up holding the sign. You want to hold the sign? Want that to be your job? Think he dreamt of doing that at 12?”
And I come down especially hard on the teens who are often being carted from one event to another. I use the quality car pool time, that one-on-one opportunity when the loving children are held hostage to those who can transport them near and far, to educate. Sex and drugs were easy; got that covered (literally, covered). Economy? Well, not so much. That’s the hard stuff.
So I dumb it down the best I can, then shove it down their throats. Stay in school. It’s your job. Do the best you can in the hardest classes you can manage. Learn and grow and know no job is beneath you. Listen more than you talk. Be patient. And kind. And this too shall pass.
Got that covered huh? Really good to know, much to the embarassment of #1 and probably #2 at this point. It’s rough out there… Kids aren’t just working for spending money or to earn cash for their own car… they are paying the bills, food, rent, utilities,… School is the safest place for them… and I really like the “take the hardest classes you can manage” and do the best in them. We are all anxiously waiting for this to pass.
For the job market, the only advice I can really offer is always have a back-up plan. Try and find a job you like and take that attitude with you to work and share it. If you can pick something your positive everyone will need in the future, ie stenographer for court, we’re always suing someone!!