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Home › Diaries › Jean › November 29, 2000

Jean's Diary Entries

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November 29, 2000

It's been a long while since I've written a diary installment. The last time I wrote I was off to Mexico to teach English for three weeks, and by the time I returned, there was a huge editing project which has taken all my time. But I'm back, with more tales of raising Andrew, and some catching up to do.

This week I'd like to tell you about Andrew's first "real job". A month before school was out in the spring, I started encouraging Andrew to look for a summer job. I never had a job until I was out of high school, and enjoyed spending my free summers at the swimming pool and playing with friends. But knowing Andrew, I knew he would be bored over the summer without some type of regular diversion. And he certainly is asking for a lot of money these days. So a part-time job seemed like the answer.

Andrew wasn't so sure, and put off looking for that perfect summer job. In fact, he didn't look until school had already been out for a week. By then the options were few, and he ended up taking a job as a bagger at a nearby family grocery store chain. Immediately Andrew started complaining about his job. He said the work was boring, despite some interesting stories about unusual customers, and he just counted the minutes until he could go home, As August approached, Andrew started putting on the pressure to let him quit. He was planning to go to Boy Scout camp for a week, and we were planning a trip to Iowa to visit grandparents. And then Andrew had plans to work at the Minnesota State Fair for the last two weeks before school started. Working at the grocery store wouldn't permit him to do these things. But then, the state fair gig wasn't for certain, and we thought that maybe the grocery store would be willing to work around the other two things. We told Andrew to ask if he could possibly have the time off that he would need for his August activities and if his manager, Sue, said no, then we'd talk about what to do.

But one day Andrew called from work and announced that he had told Sue that he was quitting. He asked me to bring along a piece of paper when I picked him up, so he could write an on-the-spot letter of resignation. Stunned, I said, "But we talked about what you were going to say. We were going to discuss what to do." Andrew, claiming that he wasn't very good in these situations, forgot what we had talked about, and told Sue that he had to quit. "What reason did you give?" I asked. He said, "I told her that I needed to help my grandparents in Iowa out at the farm. They were getting old, and were going to need my help this August."

My mouth dropped open, and I grew even more incredulous. Andrew's paternal grandmother has never even set foot on a farm, and even though my mother grew up on a farm, my parents have been city dwellers for all of their 50-plus married years. We were sure the story didn't fly with Sue. She was probably laughing, just as I would have been doing, if I hadn't been so surprised and angry.

So when we picked Andrew up from work that day (without a blank piece of paper in hand), and said we needed to talk. We talked about the whole issue of being truthful, even if it's hard, and about how people respect you more for the truth, even if they don't like it. We told him that often, if you just tell the truth, things work out. Andrew wasn't buying it. I asked him what Sue was going to think when Andrew accompanied us to buy groceries during August, since he was supposed to be "down on the farm."

Rafael took Andrew to work the next day, and the two of them spoke with Sue. Rafael explained that Andrew wanted to go to Scout camp, that we were planning a trip to Iowa (he didn't mention anything about a farm), and that Andrew was hoping to work for two weeks at the State Fair. Rafael asked Sue if it was possible for Andrew to take the month of August off, and return to his job in September. "That actually works out perfectly!" Sue responded. "We have too many grocery baggers right now anyway, and really don't need Andrew this month. But we will be needing him again when school starts."

On the way home, Andrew grumbled that he hated this job, and that he didn't want to go back in September. Rafael told him that this way his options were kept open. He wasn't obligated to go back, but should he decide to, he could. I resisted the urge to say, "I TOLD YOU SO!"

We can only hope that Andrew learned something from this experience. We preach a lot at our house about telling the truth. This seemed like a good lesson to reinforce what we have been trying to teach our children. Truth is a big deal to me. And I want it to be big deal for my kids.

Andrew is back in school now and not working at the grocery store. Next summer will be round two in the saga of summer jobs. If he doesn't find something he likes by June, maybe I'll find an Iowa farm to send him to for the summer.

Jean



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