MaBarks

Motherhood, middle-age and marriage. Insights, stories, tips, and musings on the joys and challenges of motherhood and marriage in middle age. Experience and reflections of a career woman with two teenage kids and a loving husband.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Get a Summer Job!

Kids in college and those graduating this year have never had the challenge of finding a job in an economy even close to our current recession. I graduated college in 1983 and the job market was about as depressed as it is now. But this generation is woefully unprepared. I remember that I had to take around 7 different jobs and only one of them even paid anything and it was for a weekly paper, $25 an article.

So everytime I bark, "Get a job" to my 19 year old, I feel a bit like I am sending him out on an impossible mission. Or at least one that doesn't have great potential for success. One that he is certainly not prepared for. So we are looking at other alternatives. The goal is to do "something" that enriches his life experience and himself in some way shape or form. Like summer classes or volunteering for a few non-profits.

A friend of mine with a kid graduating told him to take advantage of this time, to look at it as an opportunity; travel, do something that you ordinarily wouldn't do but that will enhance your life experience.

What other options are there? How can we best calibrate our kids who grew up in a time of entitlement when the world has shifted so dramatically. Many of us with college age kids have struggled with this generation to begin with, so now maybe our life experience has some more relevance to our kids...but will they listen?

Monday, April 6, 2009

When you Bark - Mean it!

The clean your room saga continued...and I made her cry. She never cries. But you know something I did worked. I think it was mostly I just stuck to it and didn't budge. She wanted to do a surprise birthday party for her friend. Great idea! Loved it! But I told her no party and she wasn't going out unless...she cleaned her room and it had to be done by Friday night.

Friday night comes and she asks to go out. I told her no, her room wasn't uh, straightened up. She went through all the different arguments that I have heard before and then she tried a new one. She started sobbing. I didn't budge. And guess what, her room got cleaned. She ended up staying home all night but she did it. And not only that but the next day she was open, we talked about it, how each of us felt...wow.

When you "Bark"...mean it. Good things can happen.