The difference between my youth and today’s youth

When we moved back to the states I was 16 years old. I could not wait to find a job so I could have some spending money. My first “real” job was at Taco Bell. I worked every day after school and weekends. If someone didn’t want to work, they knew they could count on me to take their hours. The more I worked the happier I was. I often worked until closing which back then was 2:00 a.m. and then I would ride my bike down the Southeastern Bypass home, get a couple of hours of sleep, go to school and then back to work. We won’t discuss if I ever did my homework…

I remember sitting in English class getting annoyed that I was having to learn about prepositions and whatever else she tried to teach me when I could be at work making a whopping $3.25 an hour! Right now I wish I paid a little more attention in class.

All the jobs I had go something like this:

Taco Bell

Quincys (I liked this one. I made roughly $100.00 a night in tips)

Western Sizzlin (I lasted 1 week. It was so nasty I wouldn’t eat my free meal there)

Directors (A really cool little sandwich/ice cream shop)

Auto Parts and Tools (my first full time job after graduation, I worked on the computers)

A PVC pipe place that I can’t remember the name of. I lasted about 2 months. I was bored out of my mind. TOTAL silence except when the phone rang.

The Gulf Agency (I started as a glorified gofer and ended up programming their computers)

And what I do now…my all time favorite.

I have always worked. Now let’s go to the kids of today. I have thought about this a lot and here is my conclusion. And I’m not saying this about EVERY kid, just the majority, so save the nasty emails.

Kids, youth, young adults today are lazy! Period. Just lazy. And I don’t get it. I believe this has happened because in most households today both parents work. If it is a single household, you know that person works. At least I hope so. To make up for the time NOT spent with these children that we couldn’t wait to have in our life we buy them things and give them things. So naturally they get lazy. Why work? Mom and Dad will give it to me to keep me happy! I didn’t do this with my boys, and I was a single parent from the time they were 4 and 8 until present. And if you ask them they would tell you I was Cruella Deville!

We sat at the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When it was “my weekend” with the boys, I planned things for us to do together, not always, but often enough. When football season rolled around, and I was invited to watch the game with friends I declined. It was my weekend with the boys. I’m not trying to sound perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I wasn’t, I made my fair share of mistakes and the “damn, why did I say that!” My boys had chores to do, and I had to stay on them to get it done. Austin had more or harder ones than Cameron because he was the oldest. I taught them how to do laundry at a young age. Cameron especially because I got tired of washing FOLDED clothes. He would take clean clothes from his bed and put them back in the dirty clothes hamper. He didn’t want to put them in his drawers or hang them up.

I had them in Boy Scouts so they could learn some of the things that I as a woman didn’t know to teach them. I think they enjoyed it. I know I did, I learned a lot. Austin was of the age that he could cut the grass, and he hated it! I hated it more. I could lose a car in the grass before I would have it cut. Yard work is not my thing. One day I got home, and the lawn mower was broken. Hmmmm, I wonder why. He told me a couple of weeks ago that he broke it on purpose to keep from having to mow. I already knew that and I went out and bought a super cheap one at Lowe’s that was not self- propelled and super hard to cut with. I think I taught him a lesson.

I will not say my boys are lazy but, I do expect more out of them than where they are right now. I hope they both will soon find their talent, as we all have one and make a good life at it. You never know what tomorrow will bring!