Thread: A Telling Story of Youth Today

So I sit out on the porch hands aching, tired as hell, popping Asprin pondering life in these United States..

About 3 Weeks ago I did a rather large project, tearing out the front flower beds and building a retaining wall backfilled with Lavarock. Took a solid week, and wore me out, but hey the front of the house looks much neater and cleaner...

So of course a couple of days after I finish the 15 YO kid who's family is renting from my closest neighbor wanders up here to ask if by chance I was looking for somebody to do some work.. I tell him he was a day late but I would see what comes up..

A few days ago I get a new 10' pole saw and start limbing the trees up, which is honestly quite a bit of fun, right up until you have to load all of them onto the Tractor forks to go dump them I think to myself, well hell, kid looking for work and I have the boat getting ready to go back in the water this weekend it will need waxing before that happens. I ain't getting any younger, I could use a hand, the wife agrees, so I stop by to talk to him and his Mom.. We agree after school today he can come down and work for a bit, I will pay him $10 per hour cash.. At this point in time I am feeling pretty happy..

So this morning I go cut more limbs off the trees, and do just the maintenance on the boat, leaving the downed limbs for us to stack, and the boat for both of us to wax...

So comes 3:30 No kid, so I start busting out the boat, because the wife is very adamant about getting it in the water over the long weekend, she saved her pennies to get us a covered slip down at the Marina, so we can go out anytime we want without having to do the whole launch and recover thing

So I think back to when I was hustling lawn cutting jobs and shoveling snow for money at his age, and I can't remember ever not showing up, in fact I think Mom would have had a bit of a problem if I had left a neighbor hanging..

Needless to say I have finished most of the Boat except where you actually have to crawl underneath to wax the hull, and I left the tree limbs for later to stack and dump
I don't get it, the money is better then most places up here pay for real, and what kid wouldn't want to mess around with a Boat and a Tractor, that would have been way to much fun to pass up when I was that age

Any just some rambling thought from the front porch as I watch the Hummingbirds at the feeder right above my head

It is a SAD world we live in now a days!
I KNOW my Father would have kicked my BUTT if I said I was going to help a neighbor and didn't show...
Seems it is few and far between that have the drive to actually work for something instead of just EXPECTING it.

I tell my students they can't show up to their jobs late, they can't be on their cell phones at work, they can't pick and choose what tasks to do, etc etc. They just nod and continue doing whatever they feel like doing.

I hate to say it, but I look forward to the first time each is not called back, or laid off, or whatever just so they can finally get it through their heads.

Well, really I don't. I hope they see it happen to someone else and remember back when I taught them better...

well aren't kids of this generation just entitled to things and don't have to work for anything? at least that seems to be what alot of them think these days. Even some of the younger "adults" I work with have the same thought process and terrible work ethics, I don't know where it comes from, I was always taught, when I was growing up, that you have to work for what you get

It has been going on for several generations, each worse than the last. They grew up in good times, maybe were spoiled and now they will walk into tough times. Good luck to em.

Bob

When I speak w/ parents that see these things in their kids, I tell them its self-correcting. Hunger games are a very efficient tutor. And many of them get it right away and live & act differently because of it. The sadness is the years that could have benefited from the link & trust of a loving parent can't be bought back. As Mark Twain said. (very rough, from memory) when I was a young man, my father was a fool. When we got together about 10 yrs later, I was amazed at what he had learned.

Maybe something happened that was out of his control & you were the last thing on his mind.
He will be back soon.
Give him a chance to explain the first one; then you will have a good idea of what kind of kid he is.

Next time he asks if you have any work for him, tell him he has to do a probationary period where he won't get paid to make up for not showing up this time. If he does that, he can earn your trust again. As Apollo Creed from Rocky 4 says "Some people need to learn the hard way"

Kids today strive to become the Bill gates of the world at a young age,the computor age has created a no work ethic world,most do not need to work.
My old man abandoned My Mom, myself and my brother when I was 8 yrs old,I have been working my butt off since.
If I wanted school cloths as a kid,It was cut cots most of the summer,pick beans and Tomatoes,wash cars,mow lawns to save up 60/75 Bux to buy two pairs of Levis (3.35/pair) two pendelton shirts (12.50 ea) one pair of shoes etc..
I was given nothing as kid but I worked my tail off and still am.

In school I worked at the grocery store, stocking & mopping. I had the work program, half day school/half day work, three hours for my sports after school.
Each year I got a pair of school/dress shoes & a pair of play shoes at the beginning of the school year.
We went to Stone Mountain as tourists before school started my 10th year.
Took my school shoes off to climb to the top of the mountain; the goats ate my shoes while I was at the top.
Got my a$$ beat by my father for taking my shoes off; wore play shoes everywhere till the next school year.
I've never cared for goats since then.