Teens and Jobs

Oddly, I didn't work much in high school.  I was very shy and already a saver, so I didn't need a lot of money.

I babysat some, and helped our pastor and his wife with housecleaning and organizing their stuff, and for many years I worked 3 weeks or so in the corn fields, detasseling corn.

If you don't know what that is, its enough to say it was hot, miserable, hard work with relatively low pay. I hated it and it showed I'm definitely not someone who should work outside all the time.  I'm an indoor girl.

Anyway, as our children have grown, we've prayed for safe and useful opportunities for them to earn money.  Lydia and Naomi have both done some babysitting, though more Lydia than Naomi because Lydia loves little kids and is pursuing a possible career with small children.

A couple of months ago, Lydia was hired at Burger King where she worked from 4 to 10 hours a week. Not a lot, obviously, but it was a big step for her.  She also got a job babysitting the neighbor children 2 to 3 times a week.  So she's actually making quite a bit of money.

Naomi is a computer geek and we really were praying for a good opportunity for her as well. Kevin got her set up with a high school student program on base.  Maybe.  These kind of programs always involve hoops, many hoops, which she loyally jumped through in the spring with lots of help from Kevin.  I think without her father's help, she wouldn't have figured it out because it was not easy to understand the process.

  For weeks we heard nothing.  I assumed that meant she didn't get the job but Kevin was all too confident it was just a usual government delay.

And he was right. This week she got a job offer. A tentative one. Which required yet more paperwork and a transcript from Clark State which they needed in 3 days and we had a hold on Naomi's account which we had to sort out...

Anyway, Kevin plans to run the transcript to the correct office today, which is the deadline.  Of course, SHE can't do it because she's on base and doesn't have an ID.

If all goes well, Naomi, will have a well paying internship for the rest of the summer. Which is like 2 months.

We'll see. May God's will be done.

Also, working for the government is awesome, but it is slow and the paperwork can be quite monumental.