Adult children living at home (babysit, daughter, insurance, college)

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by TiltheEndofTime

I agree unless the high school or college student job hops because he or she keeps getting fired. But it is a bad habit to get into and I admit this as one who job hops (a new job per school year and a new job every summer).

WHY do you job hop?

[TiltheEndofTime]

Originally Posted by Antlered Chamataka

That's understandable and normal. But there's a reason youngsters in "huge" numbers are allegedly "slacking off" in the homes of their parents.

One-off cases can be blamed and castigated, but if the pattern is widespread, it takes prudent minds to identify what is fueling that societal trend. Too much for parents to think of, huh Actually, perhaps so.

I blame a lot of this on the parents for not putting any boundaries on their child. Back in my mom's day, it was perfectly normal for fourteen year olds to work jobs. Now it is becoming more normal for people not to start working until their late teens. There seems to be an upward trend in terms of age of first time employees, but I couldn't imagine being in my mid twenties or early thirties without any work experience.

[TiltheEndofTime]

Originally Posted by DewDropInn

WHY do you job hop?

First job was a summer job that was away from school, so I got a second job that was within walking distance. This job didn't allow us to do homework and I found a job that allowed me to do homework on the job. Then I found a job in my field of study that paid three dollars more an hour than my other job. It was more convenient in terms of scheduling and it had more responsibility. I have never been fired, but I admit that I am looking for another higher up job within the place I already work at that will give me more hands on experience.

[Currency Pair Crocodile]

Originally Posted by SCGranny

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Good one, Antlered Chamataka!!!

Oh, wait, you weren't joking? My bad...

It's still funny, though. My kids all had jobs at 14, and have worked their way up, through the military, through college, and now have careers, doing what they love. Of course, they didn't sit around whining and pointing fingers and blaming other people - they got off their buts and worked for what they wanted. They learned this refrain at my knee - "Who told you life was fair?" And - they don't put up with the whiners who blame their mommies and daddies for their own irresponsibility, short-sightedness, and "bad luck". My "Gen Y'ers" know that you make your own luck.

Hold on a second, Granny Were your children born in the 80s and 90s? If not, they are not Gen Y. You're probably talking more about Gen X, which is also considered an appendage to the boomer generation. Either way, well deserved kudos on good children.

The economy ascended owing to the hard work of the pre-war generation. Those who learned a hard lesson in the depression, went into war and came out to rebuild the economy. That brings us to their children - the baby boomers. Not sure what these people smoked, but they really did smoke something, but they strongly believe they changed the world through woodstock and John Lennon , when in fact, they did nothing - they rode on the glory of their famed war-generation parents, spent a lifetime of revelry and are ending their time in the biggest economic crisis known since the depression.

These people got their lives and future handed to them in a platter, yet what they leave for posterity?
1. Debt
2. Mortgages
3. Chinese goods
4. Deficits
5. Depleted to zero retirement (I see the snail-paced gentlemen who collect grocery store carts, the walmart store greeters etc.)
6. Unemployment

Here's the list of problems facing Gen Y:
1. Inheriting 1 thru 6
2. Undo damage of the previous generation in the next few decades, with projected increases in taxations and other monetary hardships
3. Deal with the empowerment in wall street which has clinically FUBARed the employment situation of the now and the future, by continuing to invent fantastic ways of making money like outsourcing, off-shoring, near-shoring, corporate bonds, tax havens, lobbying, public offerings (primary, secondary and one million tertiaries) which seek to widen the income gap between the elites and the bottom feeders.
4. Skyrocketing costs of education, owing to little pull from parents who are mostly leaving nothing but debt and a toxic mortgage, and institutions which securitize that debt for other people to make money, which sets them on the course of a life on the wrong side of the income-debt ratio.
5. Unscaleable inter-economic exposure which is affecting the recovery and employment prospects of Gen Y, like the Euro-zone crisis which Gen Y is not even fully comprehensible with, another scheme designed by their immediate ancestors.......

I can go on and on I feel sorry for these young people. They are sacrificial lambs in a negatively changing economic dynamic that is a clear result of the failed economic policy and mindset of the previous generation.

You know what's the good thing though - the next generation will get it handed in a platter becoz Gen Y will have to fix this mess, like the ones who finished education during the depression and endured it. That's how the cookie crumbles. Some day the fledgelings must fly, though late.

[TiltheEndofTime]

Gen y IS the 80s and 90s.

[eastwesteastagain]

Originally Posted by Antlered Chamataka

I can go on and on I feel sorry for these young people. They are sacrificial lambs in a negatively changing economic dynamic that is a clear result of the failed economic policy and mindset of the previous generation.

You know what's the good thing though - the next generation will get it handed in a platter becoz Gen Y will have to fix this mess, like the ones who finished education during the depression and endured it. That's how the cookie crumbles. Some day the fledgelings must fly, though late.

Not to underestimate the challenges of our current economic climate, but honestly, every generation can "blame" those who came before for the conditions(social, economic or otherwise) they come of age in. The mark of a generation, IMO, is how the adversity is handled.

But to get back OT, I agree about the dangers of job hopping, unless one can spin that each position is an improvement upon the last and one handles the transition of giving appropriate notice and all of those other employment pleasantries very effectively. Good recs from prior employers can go a long way to countering moving quickly up the ladder through different jobs.

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by TiltheEndofTime

First job was a summer job that was away from school, so I got a second job that was within walking distance. This job didn't allow us to do homework and I found a job that allowed me to do homework on the job. Then I found a job in my field of study that paid three dollars more an hour than my other job. It was more convenient in terms of scheduling and it had more responsibility. I have never been fired, but I admit that I am looking for another higher up job within the place I already work at that will give me more hands on experience.

Perfectly good reasons, IMO. You aren't making excuses or saying a job wasn't good enough for you. You have reasons not excuses. And it sounds like you are making a series of upward moves with a specific goal in mind.

I worked while I was in college and had one job where the boss let me bring my books to work and study if everything else was done. It was a HUGE help.

[CTGirlNoMore]

I started working legally (as in when I could get hired somewhere) at 16, but long before that I was babysitting. I think I started that around age 11. While my parents never FORCED me to work, anything extra I wanted I had to pay for, so yes I got a job and earned money for it.

However, I look at my sister-in-law, who close to 40, and has NEVER worked. She finds ways to get around that. She is doing a great job *sarcasm* of teaching my older nephew who is close 19, the same way of life.

[SCGranny]

Originally Posted by Antlered Chamataka

Hold on a second, Granny Were your children born in the 80s and 90s? If not, they are not Gen Y.

One was born in the late 70's, the latter 2 were born in the 80's...

[JustJulia]

I see no reason not to have a part-time job right after high school, if not sooner.