Pocket Money

My parents weren't very well off so from the age of 14 I did office cleaning 5 days a week before school at a neighbour's company. From about 15 I also worked as a cinema usherette 3 weekday evenings and weekends. I can vividly remember trying to do my homework at about 11pm when I got in from work having been up since 5am ☹️. It did affect my school work and not surprisingly my exam results were mediocre. Thankfully when DH and I had children we were in a position that we could make DD an allowance. She never had a part time job during term time at school or at university, it does make a difference. She had jobs during the long vacation though and has an excellent work ethic.

Baby sitting and in the summer I helped my granda in his market garden, pulling up veg, weighing it out for orders. I had to put in wooden crates and leave at the gate for the customers to pick up. Lovely days, I remember eating the berries and tomatoes as I bagged them

In my student days I worked in the vacations.
Delivering Christmas post.
Office job in the Tax office. I enjoyed that.
Office job in a shoe factory. They soon realised I was a bit
“ different” from the locals so I was given various special jobs to do, not just typing and filing,
Piling magazines on a conveyor belt. Very boring. I was only there for three weeks, as my parents discovered that the magazines included some mildly pornographic ones. Actually nobody had time to see what they were as you had to work quickly. In fact they were mostly comics.

My first Saturday/holiday job was washing hair & sweeping up in a hairdresser. then came a stint in an office at a garage dealership. The one I enjoyed the most was in the local chemist.

I worked in a cafe washing up and serving,i was 14,i earned £2 and had a free lunch and a ten minute break to eat it.
Started at 6am,finished at 6pm.
Sounds like slave labour now.







It was hard work,started at 7am fifished at 6pm.
Sounds like slave labour now.

From the age of 13 I always had a Saturday job in a local shop - ironmonger, haberdasher and later my dad's stamp shop It taught me the value of money. You didn't want to waste a day's work on something you didn't really need!

At 14 I worked Saturday mornings at a local hairdressers then moved on to a local supermarket where I worked a whole day. For a half day I got 10 shillings, a full day £1.

I worked in a little local restaurant in my school holidays when I was sixteen. I washed up in the tiny little kitchen, and dreaded 'curry day' - there was always rice floating in the greasy water no matter how many times I asked the waitress to scrape the plates properly. I hated the smell of it too, which is odd because I grew up to love curry. When I'd finished and washed out all the tea cloths and hung them out, I would race on to my next job cleaning several houses, twenty minutes run away. I earned hardly anything but I saved every penny. My parents had said if I paid for myself I could go with my sister and her college friends to Spain the following Summer. It was a narrow squeak but I just did it. We were there for a month and had a marvellous time. I was pretty and it was my first holiday away from my parents who were strict. My sister always said she almost despaired of getting me home safely. After that I always had a part time job, waitressing, filing in a hospital, working behind the bar in a pub when I was older. Everything I earned was saved to go on the magical holidays to the most exotic places I could afford.

As a single parent in my 40s I had a fulltime nursing job - fortunately’9-5’. I used to collect the children from school and drive to a cleaning job, leave them in the car to do their homework and clean offices to help pay for the ‘extras’

Paper round at 11, Saturday job at Littlewoods a few years later then after A levels worked in a lovely hotel in Torbay. Through Uni. bar work a couple of evenings a week and each vac. returned to same hotel which I loved although b. hard work !
DS was told at 16 time to earn his own money and worked at Waitrose a couple of evenings a week until gap year when he travelled to Oz.
In the present circumstances the hospitality business is crying out for staff, your GD should have no problem finding employment.

At the age of 14 I worked on a Saturday at local hairdressers but got sacked after a few weeks when I burnt someones head with hot water. I then worked in a cake shop, I loved it. During the school holidays I worked in the bakery that owned the cake shop spent weeks putting jam in doughnuts! Also one year during the school holidays my friend who was at catering college got me a job in a factory canteen lying about my qualifications. I used to take the morning trolley around the factory dishing out teas and bacon rolls, listening to lewd comments of the workers!! One day I had to make strawberry Angel Delight for a dessert, in a giant food mixer I put milk and then powder in (instead of powder first) the whole kitchen was engulfed in a pink cloud. Took me ages to clean everything down.
Both my children had a brilliant work ethnic, they both had lots of jobs during University, especially my daughter who was able to run a car. They both came out with Firsts and went on to get good jobs.

Riverwalk

Regarding your GD - as she's only 16 it will be difficult for her to find a part-time job.

What jobs does your DD think she can realistically apply for?

My 16 year old grandson has just got himself a holiday and weekend job at a sports shop chain (with a lot of encouragement from his parents) so there are jobs out there for 16 year olds.

At 17/18 I was working full time but my mum worked at Woolworth's and they were looking for some extra staff in the run up to xmas and without asking me she put me forward.
3 afternoons a week is change into my uniform just before leaving my council job and toddled of to do 3hrs at Woollies and I did every Saturday to. I stayed there for almost 3 years.
I also did about 9 months part-time at Argos when I was about 22 to boost my income.

Another teenage babysitter here. When l was first married and living in a new area, l had a part-time job in BHS while l was establishing my music teaching practice.

Likewise Gwyneth! Woolworths for me, 2 hours on Friday after school and all day Saturday. My very strict form teacher didn't like girls working in Woolies, so my Dad (bless him) went to see her and so long as I did not have my uniform on for the Friday evening shift, all was well! I also did strawberry picking between school and college and college and my first full time job in an accountancy firm as one of the partners' secretary. My son did a weekend paper round (I wouldn't let him do one during the school week). The other lads didn't want to get up early on Sundays, so he ended up doing all the Sinday deliveries, which was great when he fractured his ankle and I then had to drive around with him sitting in the car with his leg up, sorting the papers and instructing me where to take each newspaper, along with a Christmas card from him - a not so subtle hint that he would appreciate a Christmas box! But ... he saved all this money and his birthday and Xmas gift money and put himself through his driving test. He's still very "careful" with his money!!

Not Sinday !!! Sunday

Back in the late 90's, my husband worked during the day, whilst I looked after the house and my son, daughter and grandson, we would all have dinner at around 6pm, then I'd get the two youngest to bed, before going to work.

I cleaned at a factory twice a week, sorted the wages once a week and updated the accounts, worked at a petrol station for two nights, and often stuffed another shift in at the weekend.

As far as work ethic is concerned, all of our children worked part time whilst at school and have worked full time since finishing school / uni. Our oldest daughter maintains that the worst job she ever had was in a factory, gutting chickens!

DWP work mostly, admin officer then adjudicating officer. Topped that up with various part time/weekend gigs: telephone banking, insurance sales, retail work in a toy shop, catalogue/newspaper modelling, promotions model work, Christmas elf, dog sitter, cook in a cafe, painting and decorating. I could and did turn my hand to most stuff but I wouldn’t do debt collection or lingerie/swimwear work.

I've cleaned at a pub, office, distribution centre and a school which can be jolly hard work - or not - depending on the habits of the workers.

Part time as a typist for a lawyer who expected me to complete an almost full time work load with the worst typewriter I have ever grappled with.

The most stressful was an advertising agency which had a high turnover of staff due to mismanagement.

At 14, I began babysitting and also had a Saturday job at Timothy Whites which I enjoyed, especially in the weeks leading up to Christmas because we sold interesting items for presents. The shop backed on to caves where bulky stock (e.g. dustbins) was stored which I didn't enjoy entering!
After TW closed, I worked at Home Counties Dairies selling groceries, cream cakes, hot pies and sausage rolls. This was less appealing, partly due to aggrieved customers accusing me of selling them stale cakes during the week when I would have been in school!!
Other jobs when I was a student included delivering Christmas parcels for Royal Mail and working for a large insurance company with other students, which provided free lunches and snacks which were excellent! Happy days!

My first job whilst still at school, but during school holidays was picking strawberries, we were paid by the punnet and could eat as much as we liked. After that and still at school came babysitting regularly every Friday evening whilst their mum worked late in her salon.once I left school and working full time As an accountant apprentice I had 3 other jobs all at the same time. 2 nights a week at the local park/entertainment venue, selling tickets, Saturday all day in a bakery, Sunday morning as a chambermaid at the local hotel. I still had time for fun and met so many people during that time. Lovely days.

I didn't do part time work until I retired aged 63. I left school on a Thursday, went to the job centre on Friday, had a job interview on Saturday morning and started full time on Monday morning. I had a break when my 2 girls were little. When they were both at school I worked 36 hours a week in a Nursing home. When I retired at 63 I continued to do bank work. When I moved house aged 65 I worked part time for the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service until I retired finally aged 68..I never had a Saturday job ever.

I always resented th

Sorry, pressed enter by mistake. I resented having to work (unpaid) in family business whilst at school and during college holidays.

My son, aged thirteen, demanded his own television; we said no. So as soon as he was able he took a newspaper delivery round and saved his earnings scrupulously, plus birthday and Christmas money and washing up at the local pub in the holidays, until he saved enough to buy one, which took a couple of years, I think.
My daughter waitressed at the local yacht club from when she was sixteen, which left her with an intense dislike of 'yachties.' At University she had a job at the local off-licence.