Pocket Money

I was a waitress in a cafe churning out hundreds of cream teas, then a waitress in a department store restaurant, I picked black currants and strawberries, worked in a greengrocers, delivered the county advertiser, even once a milk girl, running up and down with the milk from the van.
We have a family business so children and grandchildren have all had weekend or holiday jobs.
When my daughter was at university she always had jobs.
My children definitely have their faults, but none of them are work shy.

I lived in the middle of nowhere when I was a teenager but there was a pub nearby so I worked in the kitchen and as a waitress. I did my higher education when I was working full time and went to night school. I also took on additional part time work to fund it.

Then I took a year out to do my post grad but had to be careful about what type of work I took on doing that as there was certain work I couldn’t be paid for. But I did have a bursary for that.

My first DGD, now almost 30, started by delivering newspapers at 13 and later worked behind the counter until she graduated from University. She then took on bar work until she got a job that involved using her qualifications. DGD2 found herself a job in a chippy while still at school and, while at 6th form college, has done the same in another chippy in which she is going to work full time for a year after A levels. Her brother did the same and is now working part-time in a pub kitchen while he does A levels. Their cousin, DGS2 (16 in August) has a paper round and his boss is taking him on to work part-time in the shop during the summer.
Sorry to bore you with this record of my GCs' employment, but it does show that the work is there for teenagers who make the effort to find it.

My niece had no problem getting a part time job when she started sixth form college but she has an October birthday was was a little bit older than some. She ended up working at Decathlon, working various shifts for approx 20 hours a week, more at holiday times. Most sixth form college courses are part time nowadays so even though studying for A Levels and a Btec, she had plenty of free time - obviously she had ti fit studying in as well but she managed her time well.

Of course, the pandemic affected much of the time and she was delighted to be furloughed for the first lockdown but she then worked in the shop since last July. The pay is poor though, around £6 an hour and did not increase when she was 18 which surprised me. She is currently looking for a better paid job with more hours as her courses have now pretty much finished ( no exams this year again, grades based on teacher assessments) and she is not going to university but will be looking for a degree level apprenticeship next April so needs a “proper” job until then.

I think student jobs are much harder to find than in the 1970s when I was at school, I worked on a Saturday and some school holidays from age 13 ( not legal but it was in a greengrocers with my grandma) in a variety of shops and offices, right through school and university until I started my career. I changed jobs quite a lot and was very independent.

I worked on Saturdays at Boots in the Kings Road, Chelsea at 15-16 years while at school. Then at a laundry during the summer holidays aged 17 I think, which was hard hot work. Did some leaflet delivering and tried to sell double glazing to people who lived near London Airport (late 1960s). Also worked in a pub when old enough.

I had various jobs during school and uni holidays- fruit picking, shoe shop, cafe, M and S, cinema usherette and nursing assistant with mentally/ physically handicapped

My eldest GD couldnt wait to start a job, waitressing at the local pub 4 hours Sunday lunchtime, so that she had her own spending money to spend as she wished.

Potato picking at a local farm with one of my sisters at 12. Saturday job at a hairdressers when I was 14. What I paid in bus fare to the hairdressers was the equivalent to what I was paid!

My first Saturday job was at a hairdresser's when I was 13. From 8 till 6 for £1.00! At 14 I worked in a pie and mash shop, clearing tables, filling the salt and vinegar bottles, washing and drying up along with two other girls. I did this on Saturdays to start, and later it was twice a week after school till 6.00pm and all day Saturdays and the odd Saturday night till 10.00pm. They always paid for a taxi home if I worked Saturday night (quite a rough part of London in the 70s.) It didn't harm my education - I got 10 'O' Levels - where there's a will there's a way! I also got friendly with one of the younger girls who started there a year after I did and we are still friends 49 years later, and I am godmother to her daughter!

I worked in a bakers from the age of 14 and my mother was a single parent so I helped with bills even then. My daughter work d in Woolworths and Debenhams when she turned 16.

In 1960, aged 17 and at school doing A levels, I took a Friday evening job at a coffee bar , the first in our small town. This was against my parents wishes but my boyfriend (now husband) was away at uni and I wanted some excitement. Looking back I’m horrified to remember that I was the only one in charge but fortunately the customers were all around my age and there was never any trouble. The milk frothing machine always defeated me though so no one ever got a proper cappuccino . The pay was 7s 6d for three hours.

While at College I did supply teaching, office and factory work . One summer my boyfriend and I set up a window cleaning business ( half price for pensioners) but gave up after a week when I refused to go up the rickety , wooden ladder we had borrowed.

Worked in the cash desk of an electrical and tv rental shop after school and on Saturdays. Great introduction to clerical systems and to dealing with members of the public. Never looked back.

My DC all went out and found themselves jobs, from delivering papers to working in a supermarket on Saturdays, working in a clothes shop (Saturdays), waiting on and bar work at college/university.

They could have scraped by with their grants etc and what we paid for rent, food, fees etc but they liked to have a bit extra.

In fact, I think it stood them in good stead and gave them a good work ethic. It didn't seem to affect their results and they have (so far) had good careers and are versatile too.

Oh! As for me, I did babysitting when at school then worked in a pub when I was at college (I hated that).

Nannarose - work shy are her mum's words. GD did do a voluntary job for for DofE award and enjoyed it. The past two years have been difficult for my daughter and GD together. GD helps out a little but she could do a lot more. I think she will change once she has left school and started at the college.

Thank you for the comments about my GD but I posted the thread primarily as a way of a looking at how it is different for youngster these days compared to what we did.

Accept my apologies, but I can't offer any more information about my GD. I'm not unduly worried about her as I feel my daughter is doing a grand job. I'm very proud of her.

It's amazing what responsibilities were taken on with some of the jobs you all did years ago. Every enterprising too Suki70

Trisha57 What lovely pie and mash owners they were.

GD helps out a little but she could do a lot more

Helping out at home is just so boring compared with getting a job and earning money!

GD did do a voluntary job for for DofE award and enjoyed it.

Yes, one of mine did that for the D of E scheme.

Had part time jobs, after school and on Saturdays from the age of 12. Garden nursery and a farm.
Later when working and saving up to get married, did an evening job three times a week ( straight after my day job ended) in a restaurant.
Your 16 yr old DGD would benefit in many ways doing a job and not just the money, so hope your DD chivvies her to do something to help the family.

I worked at Boots Chemist from the week after my 15th Birthday, doing Saturdays and School holidays for £1.50 per day, 8am to 5.30pm. We had Wednesday afternoons and Sundays off. We also got 17% discount on any goods we bought, and l always used mine to buy end of line reduced make up and perfume sets, of which there were plenty in the January sales!

A friend then told me that the Co- op supermarket paid better at £2.00 a day and were looking for staff, so l applied and got a job on the checkouts there. I was 17, and working the summer waiting to start my Nurse training. I met and later Married my first husband whilst working at the Co-op, we had some really fun times there, the manager at the time often went to the pub at lunch times and spent the afternoon worse for wear in his office, and being teenagers, we had a ball!

Sadly my marriage did not last, we divorced and moved on, l remarried a few years later and have now been with DH2 for over 30 years, and enjoyed a nursing career and 5 DDs along the way.

The summer before my last year at Secondary school, I got a job in a big hotel in our nearest town. I was 17 yrs old then and was hired to do waitressing, but soon the manager elevated me to store keeper, where I held the key to the fridge with all the cold meats and cheeses. I enjoyed it alot and probably saved some of my wages.
During my years as a student nurse, as we earned very little then, it was 1967, I did lots of babysitting, worked in nursing homes sometimes at weekends and a few times in a wimpy.
My DSS did paper rounds, later worked in supermarkets at weekends.
Our oldest had a grant for Uni, the two younger ones had loans which they've managed to pay back.
I think it's good for students to work during their holidays, they appreciate the value of work, learn to socially interact and how to work with others.

I pushed my sons to work to learn responsibility, the independent elder son did, the younger son refused. I regret the elder son working as I believe it distracted him from his schoolwork. Once he started I couldn’t really ask him to stop as it had been my stupid idea.

Calling your gd “workshy” is rather unkind. Teenagers have gone through a pandemic and it is a stressful time to re enter the workforce let alone start out in a first time job. It’s the parents role to support their children financially for all essentials until the age of 18.
It is fine for a child to work for ‘extras’ like extra non essential clothes and entertainment etc if it doesn’t interfere with school work and sports activities but not working to pay for any living costs.

I worked on the farms at weekends and holidays picking fruit and veg, I did a Sunday paper round and baby sat. My son had a part time job while at school and college and his children, my gc, all had part time jobs and one of them worked from the day she was 16. She got the job by simply going into cafes, shops etc asking for a job until she was given one. I believe that it is good for for young people to have part time jobs and learn the value of money.

I worked in a greengrocers on Saturdays when at school, picked strawberries and tomatoes during college holidays. My daughter swept up in a hairdressers and babysat, son cleared glasses in the local pub, then bar work when he turned 18.
When I was between jobs 20 odd years ago I stacked shelves in a supermarket to keep some money coming in.

I had many part time jobs when I was young but one that stands out is working behind a bar and being sacked after three days for being to quiet,
If only they could see me now.?

Office work at first from age 14, doing printing in an engineering office. There was a diazo machine for making plan copies, it stank of ammonia. I also worked in a factory making emergency lighting; I'm still a dab hand at soldering. When I was eighteen I added bar work into the mix. I've also done survey work (my most miserable job), fruit picking, chambermaiding, filing, reception, shop work....