Unfortunately, I never had as glamorous a teen job as Kate did. There were slim pickings for my favorite job choice. First, there was the brief stint working in a golf club snack bar where I learned that me and food service employment didn't mix, so I skipped out on the typical fast food employment or even the grocery store clerk position most of my friends had. There was the computer lab job in college, which had the perk of allowing me to do homework on the job. But that didn't make up for the constant yelling from students and faculty blaming me for loosing their computer files when they didn't even know what floppy disk they saved it on to begin with. And then there were the two data entry summer jobs that were pretty much Boring City with a capital "B". There I also learned that me and monotonous work got along as well as Lauren and Heidi from The Hills.
So it wasn't that hard of a pick to choose the one job I actually liked in my teens: daycare worker.
Every day after high school beginning my junior year, I walked to a local daycare and helped out in the school-age room. Twenty screaming kids that exploded in energy after sitting upright in their desks at school all day. They liked to pick their noses, thought it was funny to put the class pet rat on the girls' heads, loved to throw the mulch on the playground, and took about twenty minutes to calm down before storytime or movietime. But I have to admit I loved the little girls and guys. And with being with the same group for a few years, I still often wonder what type of teenagers and in some cases now adults, these kids have become. They were a hand full, but they were incredibly intelligent, inquisitive kids. And we had so much fun during carnivals, craft times, when reading books, games, or just goofing off.
It's probably why I still work with kids in my day job now. But at the same time, it might also be why my husband and I are still undecided on if we want kids of our own.
Well that's about it. What are some of your worst teen jobs? What about the good ones?
--Emily, Miss Awaiting an Agent
3 comments:
Sounds similar to when I helped at the little kid events at the library -- lots of screaming! :) I give you credit for doing that job!
OMG-- when I take my kids to their classes at the park district I see all the teens that run the day camp programs-- WOW. I swear NONE of them will ever have kids. There are always two college-age counselors to about 30-40 kids. I don't know how they do it.
Although-- I totally did the day camp type stuff when I was a teen and liked it. There must be a high tolerance when you're a teen.
I don't know how you had the patience for that job, Emily! I have 2 younger brothers (one a decade younger than me) and 2 younger stepsisters, so I knew I'd never be able to tolerate that many kids at once. I swore I'd never have my own (ha). But the truth was, I was pretty good with those kids! I still had no desire to go into teaching though. If you're still enjoying your work with kids, you must have mad teaching skills.
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