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Stella's Place 
Boy do I have a lot of regret as a parent. Raising entitled, sheltered, lazy kids is not one of them. I am proud of my sons.
I once had a young man working for me on a large project. He was totally unskilled and I paid him ten bucks an hour and did not deduct for lunch if he kept it under a half hour. I also let him have smoke breaks, which he abused in a big way.
He rode with me, and was late two days. I left him the third day. Soon we had an outside talk. The thing he most took exception to was that I told him he could not talk on his phone on the job. He told me that he could talk and work too. I told him I was paying for both hands and his brain to be on his work. He got very forceful and I told him it was a take it or leave it deal. He actually told me that I did not have the right to tell him he couldn’t use his phone while he worked.
I’d kind of like to have seen my face. I am still amazed by that attitude. This was a young man who had a good reference from someone I knew.
When I worked at Home Depot we had two over 60 guys who did more in their 15-20 hours part time than almost all the full time younger people. Generally, my experience in retail management taught me the older the worker the more productive and less trouble they were. I had a few outstanding exceptions to that, and most always those exceptions were former military.
One young man served in the Marine Corp and we are still in contact. He has a son going off to the Naval Academy. Tea and his two sons and wife totall built their house. They raise a few head of cattle on a small farm. His boys know how to do just about anything it takes to build and maintain a home, they run the farm equipment, they work on cars, you name it. One is still in high school. Both are fully capable, should it be necessary, of totally caring for themselves. And they are also well mannered and devout Christians.
I guess their dad has been out of the Marne Corp about twenty years. He was just out when he worked for me. I believe to this day he thinks of himself first as a Marine.
It’s a great loss to the world that few young people today are that kind of person.
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I am an avid follower but never post. I just have to say how sad I think it is when these young people have no desire to actually do what it takes no matter what. I am 77 and in the 70″s I managed a retail gift store. I had 2 high school girls who could actually run the store. Today they have to be told everything they need to do. No common sense about what needs to be done. Everytime I go shopping I want to scream by the time I get home as no one helps or even looks you in the eye or smiles at you. It really makes me sad what these kids have become.
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Amen!!
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You should post more. It sounds as if you have a lot to contribute.
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Welcome Mary, I’m happy you decided to join in 🙂.
Once I had to physically take the headphones out of a young man’s ears and tell him to stand up so that I could remove the chair he pulled up so that he could sit down while he “worked.”
He was amazed that I wouldn’t let him sit or have headphones on while he was working.
Oh, well.
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Hah! I read ‘headphones’ as ‘headstones’ the first read through! To tell the truth, I used to wear earbuds at work while programming and doing other computer tasks. My cubicle was right next to the door to the hallway, with a short glass wall, AND close to the coffee station. There was constant talking.
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I’m sure you didn’t look like a sullen brat while you were doing your job 🙂 . Kid was a piece of work, he was not there by choice but by court order.
The tales I could tell!
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Thanks for posting this interview. Mike Rowe is the best thing to come out of Baltimore since the crab cake. Well, maybe Cal Ripken. ‘Cept he is from Aberdeen!
My twins just graduated high school. Daughter immediately hired on at a chain sub shop, within weeks became an opener, closer, head cashier, and is now in college too. Son dilly- dallied all summer, but now has entry level job in automotive industry, and in a vocational program at same college, which co-sponsors with auto dealers in the area. It is a good fit for him, there is a LOT of young me in him, but I could not be any prouder of them both.
Thanks for letting me post here, I drop by from time to time to read , take care all at Stella’s’ place.
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Congratulations on your son and daughter! I know that it is a relief to see your children maturing and moving in the right direction.
My older grandson just started college, and I have another in high school, so the second generation looks good for me. Not breathing a sigh of relief yet.
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Thank you, Stella, There was some turbulence, as you know, along the journey. And I know I’m not out of the woods yet, but the apprenticeship program was/is, ‘right on time’ as we used to say, for Jr. Take care and God bless us all.
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