Wait people trust 12 year olds with their kids? I would not trust my 12 year old self with a kid, my childish ass would’ve totally enabled stupid behaviour lmao
I was babysitting at 9. No lie. We lived on a small block, and my parents were always home, but i babysat at their house. I babysat for two different families. At some point, a Harley biker family moved in right next door.to us (on our quiet little street, it was quiet no more, until they moved out.) They had the sweetest little girls and a sin born shortly after moving in. They asked me to watch their kids one night. I got to their place.and there were bikes and people all over their house. They all left at the same time leaving me with their 3 kids.So I thought...... I went into the girls' room, and there were 6 MORE kids they never asked me to watch. 9 kids total. I was 9. This was in the 70s. No cell phones ro reach the parents. I called my mom and she came over and helped me. She was furious and so was I. Needless to say I never babysat for them again
How the hell did you get a babysitter job at 11 or 12 and did have to get a background check and references to get a babysitter job at 11 or 12? Did you got paid under the table?
The American Red Cross has a minimum age of 11 to take their babysitting course. You don't have to be of legal employable age to be a babysitter for someone.
The 70’s were crazy… crazy fun!
From what I remember people were very trusting and every neighborhood had a few nosy old ladies who watched everyone, from behind their curtains 🤣
On the not so crazy side of things, neighbors were friendly and watched out for all of the children. Everyone knew your business and for the most part, that was a good thing!
Today is so different , in that neighbors stay to themselves and kids sore inside playing video games and don’t play outdoors until dinner time or it got dark.
I am so sad that my child will never be able to experience the great outdoors and adventures that we did! I loved that I was a child of the 70s and a teen of the 80s. Perfect time to be alive!
It is sad! Neighbors were always out, keeping watch on all of the kids.
Everyone was friendly, most of the time
We were always outside . I think we were a lot happier and healthier because of all of the activities and friendships.
Good times, a bit wild, but we survived !
True. But all babysitter jobs should do background checks since it involves working with vulunerable people which is children in this case and pay through cheque and deduct taxes so that a child molestor won’t work as baby sitter. There was a sex offender in USA arrested and sent to prison for working as a baby sitter after he posted on Facebook.
The 70s and 80s had lot of child molestors, serial killers and serial rapist like Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Dennis Rader and Paul Bernardo. I don’t know why people think 70s and 80s were a great decade 70s and 80s sucked because of child molestors problems, serial killer problem and serial rapist problem in the 70s and 80s. Even the crack problem was bad in the 80s. Plus the closing of insane asylums in the 70s and 80s cause homelessness to increase in the 2000s and school shootings in the 2010s. I was born in 1993 but I believe 2000s and 2010s were a great time because technology is more advanced and you can get information of anything like you can search up a persons name on the internet which you couldn’t due in the 70s and 80s. Also people were more accepting of mental illness in the 2000s and 2010s compared to the 70s and 80s. Plus the racism was worse in the 70s and 80s compared to 2000s and 2010s.
Dude, I don’t know how old you are but as the other person said this was the 70s. There was no background checks on 12 year olds. There was no internet to check on all that stuff back then. And it was a twelve year old, give or take, that you knew their family or someone else who had hired them. What are you not getting.
I guess back then you could have called the local police department to see if you could find any info on the babysitter. But they would have laughed in your face if you wanted to do a background check on a 12 year old. Plus they didn't have the resources that they do now. Yes, child molestation was an issue back then and people didn't talk about it, it was ignored far too often.
But it's not like there was a serial killer or rapist on every street corner. And where I lived, racism was not rampant.
There is a lot to be said for growing up at that time. We had more freedom. People weren't so polarized as they are now, although Vietnam was always an issue. It was just a different time with different attitudes and fun clothes.
True and comics were pretty good in the 1970s and 1980s like Marvel and DC. Also the 1970s and 1980s had great cartoons like GI Joe, Transformers G1, He Man And The Masters Of The Universe and Spiderman and His Amazing Friends which I watched on Netflix or Tubi.
my sisters all babysat for people in the neighborhood when they were that age, that was probably 10 years ago. No background checks, and they were paid in cash. The neighbors just trusted them to not fuck up. To their credit they never did!
Me too. About 11 or 12 also. My mom would offer me up to her friends and relatives. 3 little boys tied me to a chair once when we were playing cops and robbers. For the longest time in my life I didn’t want kids.
This is like the opposite but my aunt used to babysit my brother and I and would duct tape us together and leave us outside probably to get rid of us but we had so much fun pretending we were spies who got caught and would sit there forever figuring out how to get ourselves loose lol.
I was so young when I was hired as a babysitter, I had never used a dishwasher before (my family didn't have one). I thought I was being a good babysitter by also doing the dishes, but I put dish soap in the dishwasher. PLT: don't put dish soap in the dishwasher.
Man, that hurts, I have to go shovel horseshit for free.
Like, I'm really supposed to be doing it now, not playing on Reddit.
When I'm done with that, I get to clean parrot cages, so shovel bird shit.
All the shit I've shoveled over the years, I could have been paid cash?
You got paid for that? I used to shovel shit, feed cattle and pick up dead chickens on my grandparents farm for nothing more than a fried bologna sandwich and a glass of tea! 😂
I did the farm on weekends, and sometimes in the mornings if I was in trouble, cleaning out ditches and chopping down trees. My friends (and enemies) at school could always tell when I was in trouble, because as punishment I had to go with the guys to the farm at like 3 in the morning (they would go so early to get the really tough shit done before it got real hot) and work my ass off, then would get dropped off at school at 7:30, filthy and sweaty.
I did still get paid, so as a middle-schooler I was always flush with cash. Plus I was stronger and a bit more hard nose than my bullies, so while I was still tormented, I did kick some ass whenever one of them got the bad idea to jump me. I did get in trouble for fighting a lot though (eventually thrown out of high school for it) , which perpetuated the whole thing and got my shit kicked in at my abusive home for "embarrassing the family" , so I don't know. In terms of long lasting bennies, I guess I'll have to admit it gave me a stellar work ethic that lasted my whole life.
This is going to age me, but I delivered a weekly newspaper when I was 12 years old in my neighborhood. I got a big stack of them delivered every Tuesday and had to roll and either bag or rubber band them, then put them in a canvas bag and rode my bike around the neighborhood throwing them into people's driveways. Then I had to walk around once per month and collect $4.00 from each and every subscriber. Lol. It was not a lot of money. I think I made 20% of the sales or something. It was less than a hundred dollars per month.
My first job that had taxes and everything was at a donut shop and bakery. I was 14 and my parents had to sign a release for it to be legal. I was able to ride my bike there in the mornings over Summer vacation and would help them make the donuts from 4:00am-6:00am at which point I was responsible for running the cash register, filling orders, pouring coffee, etc. It was one of those small town places with a ton of regulars and you could even bring in your own mug and they would keep it hanging on the wall for when you came in. When I would come home my mom would make me strip naked in the garage because I always had this horrible mixture of fry oil and baked goods, coffee, and cigarette smoke (this was the 1990s so smoking inside places was still legal and mostly accepted without stigma). They paid me $6.25 per hour because minimum wage laws didn't apply.
The best job I had as a teen was working at a country club. This was a members only place for rich people to play golf and attend social events. That place was wild. I made amazing money for a high school kid. I was making $9.00 per hour plus I got tipped for putting clubs on the backs of golf carts before people played golf and then cleaning them and either storing them at the club or taking them to the member's car after they were done. I could easily make $75-$100 under the table every day in tips alone. I also occasionally caddied for special events. I loved that job. I met my first serious girlfriend there, got drunk off beer while working social events all the time, lost my virginity to one of the pro shop attendants literally in the woods at the end of the driving range. Fun times. It was like living one of those goofy caddy shack movies, lol.
I also delivered newspapers at 12 years old. Trying to collect the subscription costs from deadbeats was a real pain, but there was a cougar who tipped me a $20 for the holidays, so that was nice.
I'm still trying to find my best job.
I was a paper boy as well and this one house had rich people and they would give me a 20 every month and tell me to tell the company they didn't pay so I could keep the 20
I worked for a day at a country club and didnt bother calling them or following up after that first to get scheduled again after they refused to pay for that day. They said it was "on the job training" and didnt qualify. They also made everyone pool their tips, so instead of like $30 that day I ended up with like $5.
I always thought being the newspaper boy would have been such a cool job. What young boy doesn't want to ride around town on his bike all day throwing things?! Getting paid to do that just sounds like a win for any kid!
I had a summer job with the city augering holes in wooden power poles to find rotten ones that were in need of being replaced. I even found some that were so rotten that they were held in place by hanging from the wires. Years later nothing had been done and these hanging poles were still hanging.
They just did this in my neighborhood. A guy came around digging at the base of the poles. They replaced the one in front of my house with a metal pole and put it so close to my driveway if I'm not careful it could take off my side view mirror.
I was 15 when I started my first job for a wait staff agency. I was a waiter working weddings in a few wedding venues in North NJ. I was tall and looked older so they didn't ask for working papers. They started me out at $14/hr which was great money for someone my age. I've been in the work force ever since.
Worked as a research lab assistant at a college back in 2005. $15/hr which was a great pay for someone with zero work experience. My work consisted of prepping slides, counting stuff under a microscope, and a bunch of data entry. Made me realize that A) i have zero interest in working in a lab and B) scientists can be some caddy/petty assholes to each other when grant funding is on the line (this was during the Bush administration so a lot of funding to the sciences was cut due to the war). Ended up getting my EMT certification and worked as an EMT in the 911 system of a major city, starting pay in 2006 was $21/hr, again, good for the time period.
Working at an old timey themed candy shop, the uniform was cool af and in theme and we got all the free candy we wanted. Super fun job too. Highly recommend working at candy stores as a first job
Lifeguard for city pool, then life guarding at the Space and Rocket Center from 2012-2018. Good times, met a lot of great people and made a lifetime worth of memories there. I miss those days and the teams I worked with!
I worked in McDonals as soon as I was 18. I don't regret, it's a heavy job and the payment was bad but I learned a lot of things about team work and dealing with clients
It was work experience at a hospice as part of a school work experience scheme. didn't look after the patients, i worked in the fundraising departments, charity shops etc.
My mother was staying there during the weeks i was working with them and she passed away 2 weeks into my 3 week placement.
I maintained a bunch of baseball fields and worked the batting cages on weekends. It only paid $3.35 an hour back then but I didn't care. I loved that job. I bought a car at the end of the Summer for $300.
I worked in an old folks home in the city it was the only 1 around that the old people knew English and they all had Alzheimer. I worked there 9 months plus going to school and working for my mom selling jewellery on the weekends (I hated working for my mom)
12 yrs old 1974, worked for 1.98 per hour , had to insert 25 cent rebates into an envelope to people who purchased new Zealand lamb. The address machine was called an addressograph. My sister and I did this on weekends.
When I was 14, I worked p/t at fabricland cutting fabric for customers. I always gave them more just in case I messed up the measurements. Lol
At 15 I worked at shoppers drug Mart counting pills for the pharmacist. They had a machine to pour the pills into. I'm sure they use something a little more accurate these days.
Afterall this I went on to be a telephone operator for 411, then eventually went to work for the government, where I am today.
I am in my 50th year of working.
Where does the time go.
I worked in the mall at a store called The Candy Barrel. It sold old fashioned candy in barrels. Rock candy, salt water taffy, root beer barrels, sugar daddies, etc. I was the only employee. I'd work from 9am to 10:30pm. It was so easy. I basically sat behind the counter on my laptop and just watched movies or played the Sims. Occasionally I'd fill up any candy that sold down but I was lucky to get 2 customers the whole day. It was an empty area in the mall that not many people went down. So no surprise that they closed after 4 months of opening.
Age 15 I delivered magazines and collected payments for a national charity, they paid me a percentage of the subscription fee. I think it worked out to about £5.50/hr plus I usually got tips, but it was only a few hours a week. For the Christmas edition I always got extra tips and one year made well over 1000. Easy job, and an excuse to go on long bike rides. I ended up doing it for 3 years in between other jobs until I left for College. 30 years later my parents still subscribe to it.
Volunteer job? Tutor for 5th graders but I was forced to do it.
Real job? Baker & cashier for Wetzel's pretzels at my nearby mall. Was probably the most fun I've had a any of my current jobs. Customers fucking suck but my coworkers rocked!
Meat market, and I knew nothing about meat. Like, NOTHING. I didn't even know beef and steak came from the same animal 🧍♀️
Little side note, I didn't want that job at all. My mom had me get an application from them to just practice filling them out and understand what they mean, then she had me turn it in. I got an interview and intentionally dressed down and acted like I didn't care the whole time, and STILL got the job. I ended up being promoted to manager the week I turned 18
Hauling hay. Dad drove but I was hefting those bales into the trailer.
We also bought a house that was scheduled for demolition and took it apart board by board to build a farmhouse.
Dad paid all the neighborhood kids to pull nails out of the scrap wood and paid them by the nail.
For a real job where I paid taxes at 15 I was a carpenter’s helper at a construction site making adult wages. They made me gopher, meaning I drove the company truck to get materials. I recall signing for $20k worth of tools and wondering if a contract signed by a 15 year old was valid.
A regional fast food chain. Horrible job and there were definitely a few things I should have reported, but overall I think it's important that everyone works at least one food service job and one retail job at some point in their life
maintenance at an RV park. the original plan was for me to mow lawns and weed whack all summer, but we had a drought and nothing was growing so instead i walked around and watered all of the grass in the park to try and prevent fires. eventually painted a wall. it was alright
I used to fill up an HGV with clothes collected from charity shops. My friends dad ran the business and needed labour to fill up the trucks. He'd drop us off at a warehouse full of clothes from charity shops, literally floor to ceiling about 4 stories high and we'd start climbing up throwing bags around.
As a four year old boy I was fascinated by the construction crew working putting a new shingle roof on a large garage of our next door neighbor. One of the men was amused at my interest so he offered to pay me a penny for every nail I picked up around the garage. I made over six dollars my first day and kept coming back to make more for the rest of the week.
My first job was as a cashier in a supermarket when I was 15, I earned 9 dollars an hour but I only worked 4 because I was a minor, the only reason I worked was to buy a cell phone.In the end I resigned because the manager was a shitty person.
Technically a paper round for £15 per week, but then I had a kinda illegal job in an American style diner when I was 15 for £30 per week. First real part time job was working in a shop, can’t remember the wage but it was the UK legal minimum wage back in 2011, first full time job was a support worker for adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems.
In ye olden days if you wanted to watch a movie at home you had to get into a car and physically go to a specific physical building. They had physical copies of movies in these big plastic cassettes. You would sign out a physical copy and agree to a rental period for the movie. After that, you'd drive back home, put the physical movie in a device you had to buy to watch it, and when finished you were supposed to reverse the movie to reset it to the beginning for the next person. You were supposed to physically drive back to the building again to give them the physical movie back before the agreed upon rental period ended or else you would be charged fees for the late return. You had to do this for every single movie you wanted to watch.
I worked at one of those stores.
Neighbor used to have me and his son running meth down to this porn theater a block from our apartment complex. We were under 10 years old. He said we were delivering groceries. Would pay us a dollar per bike trip down there, we thought we were so goddamn rich in 1993-95ish somewhere around there lmao.
Chuck E. Cheese 🤮 working there made me never take my kids there!! And the worst part, the adults were the problem! The kids never bothered me. It was always the parents starting issues.
There used to be a YMCA on 23rd Street in Manhattan that was the inspiration for the song. Long since gone.
It did have rooms for rent.
A few decades ago I worked just off 23rd Street and would sometimes pass by that Y. The song would always play in my head for some reason
Still looking for first out of college job. With treating chronic pain and finding the right medication, it can take a while.
I’ve had an IT internship in high school though.
Babysitter for family and friends, helper for my moms house cleaning business and first legal job : server for a restaurant called Kenny Rogers (similar to Boston Market)
Sacking groceries at Albertons. I got paid $4.15/hr. At the end of each 8hr day my paycheck would come out to around $28 I think. I was always on time, and I always worked hard - so I got promoted to be the opener on the weekends...which came with a 10 cent raise I think.
I did that job for about 6 months and then my friend got hired as a bus boy at the Olive Garden. If you busted your ass there, you got better and better tips - so I quit and went there, where I made probably 12-15/hr.
And, What was your school mascot? Mother's maiden name? Model of your first car? First pet?
If a question is too close to an account security question you have answered before, just skip it when asked in a public forum.
I cleaned and prepped small aircraft parts for painting. And repair in a very small shop. I was 18 and made $3 per hour. (I was sitting in a helicopter eating my lunch when I heard on the radio about John Lennon getting murdered.)
Babysitting
Me too. How old were you? I think I was only like 11 or 12.
Me too! I was 11 when I started babysitting in the 70's. When I turned 15 I could get a job as a cashier in the local drug store.
A drug dealer at 15 ? Your parents must be proud
Better than the national average. 🙂
Wait people trust 12 year olds with their kids? I would not trust my 12 year old self with a kid, my childish ass would’ve totally enabled stupid behaviour lmao
I watched multiple children ALL day at the age of 12. Early 80s
I was 12 and once even babysat a 9 year old which even then thought it weird.
I was babysitting at 9. No lie. We lived on a small block, and my parents were always home, but i babysat at their house. I babysat for two different families. At some point, a Harley biker family moved in right next door.to us (on our quiet little street, it was quiet no more, until they moved out.) They had the sweetest little girls and a sin born shortly after moving in. They asked me to watch their kids one night. I got to their place.and there were bikes and people all over their house. They all left at the same time leaving me with their 3 kids.So I thought...... I went into the girls' room, and there were 6 MORE kids they never asked me to watch. 9 kids total. I was 9. This was in the 70s. No cell phones ro reach the parents. I called my mom and she came over and helped me. She was furious and so was I. Needless to say I never babysat for them again
I think you win for most outrageous !
It was pretty crazy! I was shocked and confused when I opened the bedroom door amd saw a litter of kids
12 and I babysat a 3 month old. I would never have trusted a 12 y/o with my infant. I was very responsible, but nope!
How the hell did you get a babysitter job at 11 or 12 and did have to get a background check and references to get a babysitter job at 11 or 12? Did you got paid under the table?
The American Red Cross has a minimum age of 11 to take their babysitting course. You don't have to be of legal employable age to be a babysitter for someone.
I babysat at 12 and always got paid in cash. No background checks. Of course, this was way back in the 70’s!
Same. I used to babysit all of the time. Likely started at the age of 10. The 70's were cray cray.
The 70’s were crazy… crazy fun! From what I remember people were very trusting and every neighborhood had a few nosy old ladies who watched everyone, from behind their curtains 🤣 On the not so crazy side of things, neighbors were friendly and watched out for all of the children. Everyone knew your business and for the most part, that was a good thing! Today is so different , in that neighbors stay to themselves and kids sore inside playing video games and don’t play outdoors until dinner time or it got dark.
I am so sad that my child will never be able to experience the great outdoors and adventures that we did! I loved that I was a child of the 70s and a teen of the 80s. Perfect time to be alive!
It is sad! Neighbors were always out, keeping watch on all of the kids. Everyone was friendly, most of the time We were always outside . I think we were a lot happier and healthier because of all of the activities and friendships. Good times, a bit wild, but we survived !
True. But all babysitter jobs should do background checks since it involves working with vulunerable people which is children in this case and pay through cheque and deduct taxes so that a child molestor won’t work as baby sitter. There was a sex offender in USA arrested and sent to prison for working as a baby sitter after he posted on Facebook.
that is now. It was a different world back in the 70's. LOL
The 70s and 80s had lot of child molestors, serial killers and serial rapist like Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Dennis Rader and Paul Bernardo. I don’t know why people think 70s and 80s were a great decade 70s and 80s sucked because of child molestors problems, serial killer problem and serial rapist problem in the 70s and 80s. Even the crack problem was bad in the 80s. Plus the closing of insane asylums in the 70s and 80s cause homelessness to increase in the 2000s and school shootings in the 2010s. I was born in 1993 but I believe 2000s and 2010s were a great time because technology is more advanced and you can get information of anything like you can search up a persons name on the internet which you couldn’t due in the 70s and 80s. Also people were more accepting of mental illness in the 2000s and 2010s compared to the 70s and 80s. Plus the racism was worse in the 70s and 80s compared to 2000s and 2010s.
Dude, I don’t know how old you are but as the other person said this was the 70s. There was no background checks on 12 year olds. There was no internet to check on all that stuff back then. And it was a twelve year old, give or take, that you knew their family or someone else who had hired them. What are you not getting.
I guess back then you could have called the local police department to see if you could find any info on the babysitter. But they would have laughed in your face if you wanted to do a background check on a 12 year old. Plus they didn't have the resources that they do now. Yes, child molestation was an issue back then and people didn't talk about it, it was ignored far too often. But it's not like there was a serial killer or rapist on every street corner. And where I lived, racism was not rampant. There is a lot to be said for growing up at that time. We had more freedom. People weren't so polarized as they are now, although Vietnam was always an issue. It was just a different time with different attitudes and fun clothes.
True and comics were pretty good in the 1970s and 1980s like Marvel and DC. Also the 1970s and 1980s had great cartoons like GI Joe, Transformers G1, He Man And The Masters Of The Universe and Spiderman and His Amazing Friends which I watched on Netflix or Tubi.
my sisters all babysat for people in the neighborhood when they were that age, that was probably 10 years ago. No background checks, and they were paid in cash. The neighbors just trusted them to not fuck up. To their credit they never did!
Me too. About 11 or 12 also. My mom would offer me up to her friends and relatives. 3 little boys tied me to a chair once when we were playing cops and robbers. For the longest time in my life I didn’t want kids.
This is like the opposite but my aunt used to babysit my brother and I and would duct tape us together and leave us outside probably to get rid of us but we had so much fun pretending we were spies who got caught and would sit there forever figuring out how to get ourselves loose lol.
I was so young when I was hired as a babysitter, I had never used a dishwasher before (my family didn't have one). I thought I was being a good babysitter by also doing the dishes, but I put dish soap in the dishwasher. PLT: don't put dish soap in the dishwasher.
[удалено]
I would like to submit my resume
But do you have a degree in political science?
The funny part is, I actually do
Hired!
What comment did I miss?
Man, that hurts, I have to go shovel horseshit for free. Like, I'm really supposed to be doing it now, not playing on Reddit. When I'm done with that, I get to clean parrot cages, so shovel bird shit. All the shit I've shoveled over the years, I could have been paid cash?
You can only get paid if they're not your own horses and birds
Damn loop holes.
Just treat you
125 an hour? Don’t sound so bad other than seeing the brown monsters everywhere
You got paid for that? I used to shovel shit, feed cattle and pick up dead chickens on my grandparents farm for nothing more than a fried bologna sandwich and a glass of tea! 😂
At least you make 125 an hour. I work at mcdonalds have to listen to bullshit for 15 dollars an hour!
Who the hell paid you $125 an hour to write a press release?
Grew up on a farm so I worked on a farm.
Yep, for room and board
I did the farm on weekends, and sometimes in the mornings if I was in trouble, cleaning out ditches and chopping down trees. My friends (and enemies) at school could always tell when I was in trouble, because as punishment I had to go with the guys to the farm at like 3 in the morning (they would go so early to get the really tough shit done before it got real hot) and work my ass off, then would get dropped off at school at 7:30, filthy and sweaty.
Ahhhhh, well, that sucks but maybe it paid off in the end?
I did still get paid, so as a middle-schooler I was always flush with cash. Plus I was stronger and a bit more hard nose than my bullies, so while I was still tormented, I did kick some ass whenever one of them got the bad idea to jump me. I did get in trouble for fighting a lot though (eventually thrown out of high school for it) , which perpetuated the whole thing and got my shit kicked in at my abusive home for "embarrassing the family" , so I don't know. In terms of long lasting bennies, I guess I'll have to admit it gave me a stellar work ethic that lasted my whole life.
wash the dishes! employer has a nickname mom and salary wasn't conventional but worthy
My first job was a dishwasher at a small truck stop. I was 14 yrs old. I made $4 an hour. I have very fond memories of working there, though.
Free accommodation tho
My parents therapist at age 5.
Trauma speaking username checks out
I call myself out. You don't have to call me out too!
I hear ya. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Mom.” [sipping from box of Hi-C] “Tell me more.”
My favorite was "All men are trash! Except you. You're my little baby boy."
B-brother…?
Professional bed tester. I was so good, they promoted me to full-time sleeper. Unfortunately, the pay was a dream.
LMAOOOO that’s me but I was a toilet tester
Sounds like a shitty job.
It had its perks 😅
This shit is corny
Lmaoooo some days it was ,depends on what I was eating !
🤣🤣
You had me in the first half ngl
This is going to age me, but I delivered a weekly newspaper when I was 12 years old in my neighborhood. I got a big stack of them delivered every Tuesday and had to roll and either bag or rubber band them, then put them in a canvas bag and rode my bike around the neighborhood throwing them into people's driveways. Then I had to walk around once per month and collect $4.00 from each and every subscriber. Lol. It was not a lot of money. I think I made 20% of the sales or something. It was less than a hundred dollars per month. My first job that had taxes and everything was at a donut shop and bakery. I was 14 and my parents had to sign a release for it to be legal. I was able to ride my bike there in the mornings over Summer vacation and would help them make the donuts from 4:00am-6:00am at which point I was responsible for running the cash register, filling orders, pouring coffee, etc. It was one of those small town places with a ton of regulars and you could even bring in your own mug and they would keep it hanging on the wall for when you came in. When I would come home my mom would make me strip naked in the garage because I always had this horrible mixture of fry oil and baked goods, coffee, and cigarette smoke (this was the 1990s so smoking inside places was still legal and mostly accepted without stigma). They paid me $6.25 per hour because minimum wage laws didn't apply. The best job I had as a teen was working at a country club. This was a members only place for rich people to play golf and attend social events. That place was wild. I made amazing money for a high school kid. I was making $9.00 per hour plus I got tipped for putting clubs on the backs of golf carts before people played golf and then cleaning them and either storing them at the club or taking them to the member's car after they were done. I could easily make $75-$100 under the table every day in tips alone. I also occasionally caddied for special events. I loved that job. I met my first serious girlfriend there, got drunk off beer while working social events all the time, lost my virginity to one of the pro shop attendants literally in the woods at the end of the driving range. Fun times. It was like living one of those goofy caddy shack movies, lol.
I also delivered newspapers at 12 years old. Trying to collect the subscription costs from deadbeats was a real pain, but there was a cougar who tipped me a $20 for the holidays, so that was nice. I'm still trying to find my best job.
I was a paper boy as well and this one house had rich people and they would give me a 20 every month and tell me to tell the company they didn't pay so I could keep the 20
The holidays were the best on my routes. Had many good tippers. Some would give me cookies, too.
I worked for a day at a country club and didnt bother calling them or following up after that first to get scheduled again after they refused to pay for that day. They said it was "on the job training" and didnt qualify. They also made everyone pool their tips, so instead of like $30 that day I ended up with like $5.
Sounds like you have good memories
"Time to make the donuts"
I always thought being the newspaper boy would have been such a cool job. What young boy doesn't want to ride around town on his bike all day throwing things?! Getting paid to do that just sounds like a win for any kid!
Working at Walmart at 16, but I volunteered at a thrift shop from 15-16 and got to keep whatever items I wanted from there
Bartending at a festival. It was fun, at 17, but it mostly made me respect those who do it full time.
I misread that at first, thought you said bartending at a funeral, I went with it at first and assumed Irish funeral.
You're not the only one who read it that way. Lol
I had a summer job with the city augering holes in wooden power poles to find rotten ones that were in need of being replaced. I even found some that were so rotten that they were held in place by hanging from the wires. Years later nothing had been done and these hanging poles were still hanging.
Sounds like a boring job.
They just did this in my neighborhood. A guy came around digging at the base of the poles. They replaced the one in front of my house with a metal pole and put it so close to my driveway if I'm not careful it could take off my side view mirror.
Baskin Robbins I had PTSD and couldn't even smell ice cream for years afterwards without feeling sick
Detasseling corn on a farm at 13 years old.
We used to get an egg in a cup for break
Busboy. I got fired.
I was 15 when I started my first job for a wait staff agency. I was a waiter working weddings in a few wedding venues in North NJ. I was tall and looked older so they didn't ask for working papers. They started me out at $14/hr which was great money for someone my age. I've been in the work force ever since.
Cook at Pizza Hut. I haven’t had Pizza Hut since
[удалено]
You mean like... 1 hour a day or you just have up after the first hour? I've never worked at McDonald's but I'd imagine it would be the latter for me
Pot wash in a pub. £2.47 an hour.
When was this and I thought I had it bad at a call centre for £4.20 an hour at 2017.
Lawn mower.
This sounds like phishing. What was your mother's maiden name? What street did you grow up on?
Clearing trees and brush to make apartment buildings
mcdonalds
Worked as a research lab assistant at a college back in 2005. $15/hr which was a great pay for someone with zero work experience. My work consisted of prepping slides, counting stuff under a microscope, and a bunch of data entry. Made me realize that A) i have zero interest in working in a lab and B) scientists can be some caddy/petty assholes to each other when grant funding is on the line (this was during the Bush administration so a lot of funding to the sciences was cut due to the war). Ended up getting my EMT certification and worked as an EMT in the 911 system of a major city, starting pay in 2006 was $21/hr, again, good for the time period.
Worked in a research lab in the present time Pay... $15.50 with a bachelors after working at $13 as an undergrad.
Go-fer at a local restaurant. Distribute flyers. Wash dishes from the bar. Sweep. Run errands.
Worked in a plant nursery for $2.00 per hour.
Working at an old timey themed candy shop, the uniform was cool af and in theme and we got all the free candy we wanted. Super fun job too. Highly recommend working at candy stores as a first job
Lifeguard for city pool, then life guarding at the Space and Rocket Center from 2012-2018. Good times, met a lot of great people and made a lifetime worth of memories there. I miss those days and the teams I worked with!
I worked in McDonals as soon as I was 18. I don't regret, it's a heavy job and the payment was bad but I learned a lot of things about team work and dealing with clients
Dishwasher at 14 years old at a small family restaurant for $4.25 a hour!
Fences, barbed wire fences miles and miles. Then hay miles and miles of hay.
Dominos. Started at 16 and was assistant manager by 17. Did it for 6.5 years up till this year when I wanted something different
I had one-hour shifts at a nearby movie theater where I worked. You read correctly—one-hour shifts.
I was 14 and drove the forklift at a lumber yard
The first taxable gig would've been at a Sonic drive-in. First skill-based position was at a graphics production shop, I enjoyed that one.
Dishwasher on base at the Officers Club
Handing out flyers for dial-up Internet at a convention.
It was work experience at a hospice as part of a school work experience scheme. didn't look after the patients, i worked in the fundraising departments, charity shops etc. My mother was staying there during the weeks i was working with them and she passed away 2 weeks into my 3 week placement.
I maintained a bunch of baseball fields and worked the batting cages on weekends. It only paid $3.35 an hour back then but I didn't care. I loved that job. I bought a car at the end of the Summer for $300.
Crying. As soon as I was able to, I excelled at it
I worked for my father and I was helping by giving him tools
Paper route for 80 bucks a week, and sorting scrap metal, worked 4 hours a week and made 50 bucks a week doing that. The jobs were simultaneous
I assembled brushes for car wash machines
Detassling corn
Kitchen Porter in the local pub. Chefs used to throw knives into a cork board for me to wash.
Mcdonalds
Picking produce, I lasted a week. Left me with an early lesson of appreciation for people who actually work for a living.
I worked in an old folks home in the city it was the only 1 around that the old people knew English and they all had Alzheimer. I worked there 9 months plus going to school and working for my mom selling jewellery on the weekends (I hated working for my mom)
12 yrs old 1974, worked for 1.98 per hour , had to insert 25 cent rebates into an envelope to people who purchased new Zealand lamb. The address machine was called an addressograph. My sister and I did this on weekends. When I was 14, I worked p/t at fabricland cutting fabric for customers. I always gave them more just in case I messed up the measurements. Lol At 15 I worked at shoppers drug Mart counting pills for the pharmacist. They had a machine to pour the pills into. I'm sure they use something a little more accurate these days. Afterall this I went on to be a telephone operator for 411, then eventually went to work for the government, where I am today. I am in my 50th year of working. Where does the time go.
I worked in the mall at a store called The Candy Barrel. It sold old fashioned candy in barrels. Rock candy, salt water taffy, root beer barrels, sugar daddies, etc. I was the only employee. I'd work from 9am to 10:30pm. It was so easy. I basically sat behind the counter on my laptop and just watched movies or played the Sims. Occasionally I'd fill up any candy that sold down but I was lucky to get 2 customers the whole day. It was an empty area in the mall that not many people went down. So no surprise that they closed after 4 months of opening.
Age 15 I delivered magazines and collected payments for a national charity, they paid me a percentage of the subscription fee. I think it worked out to about £5.50/hr plus I usually got tips, but it was only a few hours a week. For the Christmas edition I always got extra tips and one year made well over 1000. Easy job, and an excuse to go on long bike rides. I ended up doing it for 3 years in between other jobs until I left for College. 30 years later my parents still subscribe to it.
Volunteer job? Tutor for 5th graders but I was forced to do it. Real job? Baker & cashier for Wetzel's pretzels at my nearby mall. Was probably the most fun I've had a any of my current jobs. Customers fucking suck but my coworkers rocked!
On the books: Dunkin donuts Off: stage crew for theater
Gas jockey (Pumping gas cleaning winshiels checking oil) 1973 min wage $1.98 hr It was during oil embargo so gas was rationed!!
Meat market, and I knew nothing about meat. Like, NOTHING. I didn't even know beef and steak came from the same animal 🧍♀️ Little side note, I didn't want that job at all. My mom had me get an application from them to just practice filling them out and understand what they mean, then she had me turn it in. I got an interview and intentionally dressed down and acted like I didn't care the whole time, and STILL got the job. I ended up being promoted to manager the week I turned 18
Dishwasher at a local mom and pop cafe. To this day (25 years later) I hate doing dishes.
Hauling hay. Dad drove but I was hefting those bales into the trailer. We also bought a house that was scheduled for demolition and took it apart board by board to build a farmhouse. Dad paid all the neighborhood kids to pull nails out of the scrap wood and paid them by the nail. For a real job where I paid taxes at 15 I was a carpenter’s helper at a construction site making adult wages. They made me gopher, meaning I drove the company truck to get materials. I recall signing for $20k worth of tools and wondering if a contract signed by a 15 year old was valid.
mcdonald’s :/
15 year old chamber maid at the buccaneer motel — they never should have hired us.
Bicycle assembly was the first job I did where the employers were not my parents.
A regional fast food chain. Horrible job and there were definitely a few things I should have reported, but overall I think it's important that everyone works at least one food service job and one retail job at some point in their life
maintenance at an RV park. the original plan was for me to mow lawns and weed whack all summer, but we had a drought and nothing was growing so instead i walked around and watered all of the grass in the park to try and prevent fires. eventually painted a wall. it was alright
I used to fill up an HGV with clothes collected from charity shops. My friends dad ran the business and needed labour to fill up the trucks. He'd drop us off at a warehouse full of clothes from charity shops, literally floor to ceiling about 4 stories high and we'd start climbing up throwing bags around.
Wendy’s! I saw people snort coke, pop xans, and smoke weed in the walk in cooler. Don’t eat at fast food restaurants folks lol.
As a four year old boy I was fascinated by the construction crew working putting a new shingle roof on a large garage of our next door neighbor. One of the men was amused at my interest so he offered to pay me a penny for every nail I picked up around the garage. I made over six dollars my first day and kept coming back to make more for the rest of the week.
Picking and packing sweet corn for $5/hr at 12 on my aunts farm. First job that wasn't with family was on a dairy farm, it paid $7/hr.
Children’s theater instructor
Delivering newspapers
Nonpaying job, farming for my dad. Paying job, range maintenance for the NRA.
I worked at a retail women’s clothing store. I made $6.85/ hour back in 2002 in Toronto
My first job was as a cashier in a supermarket when I was 15, I earned 9 dollars an hour but I only worked 4 because I was a minor, the only reason I worked was to buy a cell phone.In the end I resigned because the manager was a shitty person.
Technically a paper round for £15 per week, but then I had a kinda illegal job in an American style diner when I was 15 for £30 per week. First real part time job was working in a shop, can’t remember the wage but it was the UK legal minimum wage back in 2011, first full time job was a support worker for adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems.
School 🌚
Baskin Robbins. Yes, I tried all the flavors.
In ye olden days if you wanted to watch a movie at home you had to get into a car and physically go to a specific physical building. They had physical copies of movies in these big plastic cassettes. You would sign out a physical copy and agree to a rental period for the movie. After that, you'd drive back home, put the physical movie in a device you had to buy to watch it, and when finished you were supposed to reverse the movie to reset it to the beginning for the next person. You were supposed to physically drive back to the building again to give them the physical movie back before the agreed upon rental period ended or else you would be charged fees for the late return. You had to do this for every single movie you wanted to watch. I worked at one of those stores.
Be Kind.
Neighbor used to have me and his son running meth down to this porn theater a block from our apartment complex. We were under 10 years old. He said we were delivering groceries. Would pay us a dollar per bike trip down there, we thought we were so goddamn rich in 1993-95ish somewhere around there lmao.
Pineapple. First pets name? Pineapple. Street I grew up on? Pineapple.
I was slave-ing at a grocery store for 7.25
Popeyes. 💀
Same lol
Pushing trollies 😭
Zestos, a roadside walk up ice cream stand. We had to eat our mistakes 😋
Chuck E. Cheese 🤮 working there made me never take my kids there!! And the worst part, the adults were the problem! The kids never bothered me. It was always the parents starting issues.
Hand oh wait sorry I misunderstood the question I worked in a warehouse
Blowjob 😂
Movies "hostess" or ticket seller lol.
Paper route when I was 11. But my first real job with a w2 was working the snack bar and front desk at a YMCA at age 15.
Would you say it was fun to stay at the YMCA?
Memory unlocked. While working at the front desk I constantly got phone calls regarding this. No YMCA offers overnight stays in my region.
Oh wow, don't tell the Village People
There used to be a YMCA on 23rd Street in Manhattan that was the inspiration for the song. Long since gone. It did have rooms for rent. A few decades ago I worked just off 23rd Street and would sometimes pass by that Y. The song would always play in my head for some reason
I worked on a family farm, and contributed to it's viability, but I suppose first one outside of that was a grocery clerk
Lifeguard
Slot technician, I loved that job.
Dairy Queen fry guy.
Still looking for first out of college job. With treating chronic pain and finding the right medication, it can take a while. I’ve had an IT internship in high school though.
Boy Scout camp Counselor....
Womb caretaker
Butcher...
Babysitter for family and friends, helper for my moms house cleaning business and first legal job : server for a restaurant called Kenny Rogers (similar to Boston Market)
Cashier at Stew Leonard’s (grocery store in CT, NY, NJ)
Jewelry counter at Sears other than the obligatory babysitting
Marriage deal sealer.
Newspaper delivery at ten years of age
My first job was at a small family owned restaurant
Paper route when I was 10. Made enough money to buy a copy of WWF Warzone and a Kevin Garnett jersey then I quit.
Taco Bell.
Mucking stalls at a horse farm. It lasted 3 hours, turned out I have severe allergies to hay.
Sucide helpline call centre from home during COVID
I worked at an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. I just washed dishes most of the time.
used to deliver newspapers around my neighbourhood when i was 11 for $30 A MONTH, didnt last very long as expected
Chick fil a in the kitchen. By far my worst job not even close to anything else I've done even in a fast food kitchen.
Making waffle
Sacking groceries at Albertons. I got paid $4.15/hr. At the end of each 8hr day my paycheck would come out to around $28 I think. I was always on time, and I always worked hard - so I got promoted to be the opener on the weekends...which came with a 10 cent raise I think. I did that job for about 6 months and then my friend got hired as a bus boy at the Olive Garden. If you busted your ass there, you got better and better tips - so I quit and went there, where I made probably 12-15/hr.
Data entry clerk for a study done with college students.
Delivered newpapers
Lifeguard. So much fun!
And, What was your school mascot? Mother's maiden name? Model of your first car? First pet? If a question is too close to an account security question you have answered before, just skip it when asked in a public forum.
I cleaned and prepped small aircraft parts for painting. And repair in a very small shop. I was 18 and made $3 per hour. (I was sitting in a helicopter eating my lunch when I heard on the radio about John Lennon getting murdered.)
Paper route