Life Choices

I was telling teeny today that she did not have to decide right now, even in the next few years what she wants to do with her life. She is young, only 16 and has many years to decide what she wants to "be" when she grows up.

After talking with her I laughed to myself as I remembered that at her age I left home. I went to live with a friend in California and spent the summer there, doing lots of things I would not want her to do. Once I returned home to finish my senior year, I was still 16, I met my hubby. We got married seven months later, when I was 17 1/2!

I did not talk to her about that part!

Suffice it to say I assured her to look at life and decide what she wants to spend her life doing. She has a boyfriend right now that is talking to her about the realities of being a famous singer. He is trying to convince her that she will not have a life if that is what she does. I think it is the opposite and her life will be all about her.

He did tell her he did not want to live with someone that was famous. That was what got her thinking about her other options. She told him that I had always tried to talk her into being a lawyer, she can argue like none other. I mean she has always been able to argue very well.

He agreed with me. He told her because of two things. He thought she would be able to talk well in a court room, and the most important part, she looks really hot in a pencil skirt!

Teenagers and Jobs

Our children have always had part=time jobs. The reasoning is they want cell phones and they want to drive, so the jobs finance their cell phones as well as their car insurance. Our current teenager does not need car insurance, we don't even have a car. But she does "need" a cell phone. And of course there is the iPod, that is another necessity these days.

Today she went for an interview at the "flower" place out by the airport. I still have not decided if it is a good thing or not. It is a call center, so it is not like it will be hard work for her. The problem is that it is a full-time job. Like she would have to go to work every single day.

Her siblings have assured me it will not last. Who would work full-time if they did not have to? I finally came to an agreement with her that she could work until she replaced the stolen cell phone and her broken iPod. After that we will be out of the country for a month anyway, so she will be done.

Now I am starting to think maybe not. She is 16 and a half, but she is a very young sixteen. My older daughter was a volunteer candy striper at the hospital at 15, got her CNA at 16 and was working everyday after work at the local assisted living center. She was an older 16 for sure.

In fact I can still remember she would drive our big old suburban to school, stay and work and get home late at night. Wow now that I think about it she was really different. In a really good way and boy do I appreciate it now.