Well, Kid Number One finally did it. He’s employed! He got his first job last week and his first day was Saturday. It was really kind of strange, actually. Chris drove him to his place of employment - I rode along. After we dropped him off I looked at Chris and said “Hey - we just dropped Ben off…. at work. Heh.”
I was all proud. And Ben was all like “Mom - it’s no big deal” *eye roll*
I picked him up after his 4 hour shift and asked him how it was:
“Mom - man! I STOOD on my feet for FOUR straight hours making buns! My feet are KILLING me!”
I tried (and think I succeeded) really hard to empathize with him, and promised to pick him up some of those gel inserts for his shoes so that his poor feet don’t have to suffer anymore.
We stopped at the grocery store on the way home. We get to the check out where they have one of those coolers filled with sodas. Ben says “Mom - can I get one of those Mountain Dews, please?” - I look. It’s one of those big bottles - cost: $3.
“Sure, Ben - I’ll get it for you. But I want you to keep in mind.. that bottle of soda? Represents 30 minutes of you standing on your feet, making buns”
More eye rolling.
It is my hope that, someday, the kid will learn the value of a dollar - or three.
9:50 pm on October 30th, 2006
Keep hoping and let me know how that works out for you
9:56 pm on October 30th, 2006
Heh - think I’m unrealistic and overly optimistic?
Yea.. me too.
10:17 pm on October 30th, 2006
Four hours working on buns…
yeah, I better leave that one alone… 
10:18 pm on October 30th, 2006
Oh, and do you want to remind him that it isn’t just a half hour of him working on buns for that bottle of Dew. It’s a half hour of him working on buns before the government takes their share…
10:25 pm on October 30th, 2006
Figured I’d leave the “Tax Man” lecture for another day, else his 17 year-old head would explode.
10:26 pm on October 30th, 2006
OH, and he wishes he were ‘working on buns’ haha
He had to get a job in order to pay for the damage he did to my car this summer while we were on our honeymoon - - but that’s another story altogether.
11:05 am on October 31st, 2006
Congrats to the kiddo, welcome him to hell for me
10:39 am on November 1st, 2006
He will learn the value of the dollar the same way we all do, when we owe to many of them to the credit card company to be able to eat.
2:12 am on November 2nd, 2006
I’m here from Bug’s.
Do keep us posted on this–I’m trying to convince our 10 year old that we do NOT intend to let him live here forever and he might want to start saving NOW.