A serious & silly Labor Day reflection on my work history

In honor of Labor Day, I though I'd try to list all the paid jobs I've had over the years, since I started helping with my older siblings' paper routes at the age of eleven.  As I listed these, I thought of something I wrote for Home Education Magazine last year in the essay Arm Farts, Life and Death.  It's not available online, so I can't share it with you.  Here I'll quote two parts about employment:

Our paid employment may also relate to our identity, or we may primarily identify as unschoolers.  We live in a culture in which identity is very much tied up with career or job status.  When you meet someone new, often the first question is, "What do you do?"  What do I do!?  Lots! - I think to myself.  I sleep, eat, love, learn, run, read, write, hike, cook, clean, manage a household, keep the calendar, take care of various needs of husband, children, and pets.  I'm a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, cousin, unschooler, church member, writer, thinker, dreamer.  I don't really say all that of course, because the questioner only wants to know what I do for paid work. 

The flexibility of taking short-term and/or part-time jobs has been a good fit for me as an unschooling mom.  It has given me the opportunity to contribute to my family's income as needed and in ways that don't take way away from our family life.

I understand and respect that everyone's choices are different in this regard.  I admire the successful and rewarding careers of many friends and family members.  And I do realize that people with full-time careers also have to manage households and families.  But since this was a personal essay in a publication for homeschoolers, I was talking about the choices that worked for my family in that context. Certainly, each choice has its own advantages and disadvantages.  For our part, relying primarily on one income has meant being very conscious about our spending and practicing frugality.  In my post Open windows, silver linings, lemonade & rolling with the changes, I wrote about my recent search for part-time work.  There were some disappointments, but ultimately I found a good fit.  If you have a nontraditional work background like me, you need to find employers willing to sit down with you and find out about your skills.  An online application process is not going to pick up on that.  As for that nontraditional work history of mine...what follows is what I can remember.  Each job is followed by a six-word description or commentary.  I'm slightly enamored of the six-word constraint ever since I used it for book reviews a few months ago.

babysitting:  Changing diapers before I knew how.
paper route:  The neighborhood routes - my family's dynasty.
server & dishwasher at nursing home:  First "real" job at sixteen years.
county park employee:  Teenage girls essentially run lakeside marina. (seriously)
jewelry sales at Summerfest:  I am not good at sales.  (again, seriously)
pizza-maker:  First college job - second semester freshman.
night manager (security) at dorms:  Teenage kids essentially run college dorm.
admissions office at university:  I can't remember...maybe administrative tasks?
resident assistant:  Free room and board = good gig.
library at university - I can't remember...data entry maybe?
fair housing investigator:  Young adults investigate housing discrimination complaints.
karaoke host at bars:  I did this and sang too.  (seriously, in public)
security/visitors assistant at museum:  Temporary gig while figuring things out.
administrative assistant:  Still trying to figure things out.
bookseller:  I guess I can sell books.
paraprofessional educational assistant:  Figured out - education is my field.
fifth grade teacher:  My classroom is my main domain.
(Somewhere in here is where I gave birth to three kids in the space of about five years.)
in-home childcare/babysitter:  Add more kids to the mix.
telephone customer service at home:  That was interesting - look away now.
clerk at public library:  I love books and library people.
writer/editor of Powerpoint presentations:  A good home-based, short-term contract gig.  
tutor at high school:  Short-term and eye-opening experience tutoring teens.
freelance writer:  Published a few articles and essays.
outreach specialist for nonprofit organization:  My awesome, interesting new part-time job.

That's it.  I'm curious what might be added to the list in the future.

Have you had any interesting or unusual jobs?  I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Labor Day!

*****

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