Mother, Can You Spare A Dime? (or $20?)

On Tuesday, right before going back to work, I decided to get to work on getting my oldest child some work. He's what you'd call a "leisure looker"--he'd like a job but he's perfectly content if we just pay for it all. We haven't pushed it because...well, he doesn't have a license, so who do you think would be taking him to said job? He's applied to a few things online. WE'VE applied to a few things online FOR him. But we really haven't pushed it.

But now, he's getting to be an expense that would be less expensive if he was paying for himself. Constant requests for Orioles tickets and fast food, a smart-phone, a PROM DATE (yikes!), a date to get his driver's license (and put on our insurance--DOUBLE YIKES!!!!!), and just the fact that at 17 and 170 lbs. he eats as much as his father have altered my views of the driving him occasionally to and from work.

So, Tuesday, Mom put the smackdown on his life as a man of leisure.
Not quite like this, folks, but you get the picture.


Now, my husband wanted me to take him on down to Main St. and drop him off, make him go door-to-door for that job--"No, son, you CANNOT get back into the car until you have a job! I don't care if it IS cold and rainy!" (it wasn't) But I am more realistic. Let's face it. Like most teen boys, he has the interview personality of a wet sponge. Add to that handwriting that looks like a 3rd grader's (I'm truly being kind here) and no job experience and he would likely starve to death before he could get back into the car per my hubby's standards.

But I made him go seek out jobs. I helped him fill out 3 or 4 applications online and 2 actual written application (I'm not hoping for much there since both are in HIS handwriting). But I think back to being 15, two years younger than he is now, and getting my first job. Fast food. Hardee's. My dad went out and got that sucker for me because he was tired of paying for my lazy a$$ to go out to the movies and shop. But times have changed; jobs are scarcer. And I worry that us not pushing this whole job thing a couple of years ago is going to hurt him now. I mean, online applications where the job experience is not filled in will not give the whole picture. Handwritten applications that are nearly illegible won't either.

Either way, I have a burning fear that I will be paying for him for a little while longer (or, in more panicked moments, until he's like 40 and living in my basement!). And then, I'll need to spare more than the occasional $20, and that scares me more than childbirth itself!!!