Working at the car wash.
My children are getting to the age where they have figured out that in order to survive in this world, you have to hold a job. When I would leave the house in the morning, on work days, they’d chorus: “Are you going to make monies now?” “Yes, I’d say. Mom is going to make monies.” Life had a predictable cycle. Mom went to work, made money (on a printing press of some kind) and brought it home so we all might visit Target that evening to spend said monies. My eldest daughter came to work with me on a handful of occasions and sat at my desk, doing what she must have assumed I did all day – talk on the phone and visit the office kitchen. But it was all very vague to her, this job mom had, this office where mom typed on her computer all day long.
At home, Hazel and her brother and sister delight in playing restaurant, where there the menu is unpredictable, the service is alternately abominable or attentive and the food is inedible or missing entirely. One of them works the cash register, one of them puts plastic grapes on my plates and one of them generally gets confused and sits down beside me, as if it’s common practice for the waitstaff to sit down with the customers. Near as I can tell, Clyde would like to work at the Taco Bell drive through, Hazel would like to work at a hair salon and Ivy, judging from all her barking and crawling on the floor on all fours, would like to be a dog. The other day Hazel said to me, “Let’s pretend my hands and feet are tied up and I have to escape from jail.” Hairdresser turned criminal I guess.
I suppose children eventually find that working the drive through is not all the thrilling, waiting tables is not what it’s cracked up to be, and washing windows at the gas station gets old. I wonder when that will happen. When someone will ask them what they want to and they’ll respond with something more lofty like: “astronaut” or “veterinarian”. I’m sure there will be all kinds of professional aspirations as they grow up. As a child, my sister, unable to decide between being a singer and a polar bear expert, famously announced she would be a singing polar bear expert. You may have heard of her. She’s the only singing polar bear expert in the world. Not really, but I bet she knows a few polar bear facts. And I’ve heard her sing. She’s not so bad.
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