“J” is for June and Jobs.  




Speed Police has her baby-sitting business ready to go.  She still needs to distribute her cute little fliers and make a few strategic phone calls.  But, despite that, she had her first gig tonight.  Granted it was for her cousins, a sure set-up for a home run.  Still, she did great … and had a ball.  Right in line with Chuck Bentley’s encouragement (Chuck’s Table Talks) to not only get them working, but also steer them toward something they enjoy.


We haven’t found what Teen Take-Out enjoys  yet.  People all the time ask me, “What is his passion?”  I can pretty much answer that question with all our other kids except him.  I don’t have a clue what floats his boat.  I try to avoid answering.  If I was 100% truthful, his passion would have something to do with avoiding strenuous exercise, passively participating in anything media related (better-said, television!), and eating food that is freshly prepared at an establishment other than our home.  Oh yeah, and arguing. 


Within seconds of posting Monday’s post, “Hitting the Wall” (I’m not joking!), here was our conversation.


“Hey, clean that up.” I said to Teen Take-Out after he spilled some of his coffee on the floor and pretended not to notice.

“I didn’t do that.”

“What are you talking about?” I retorted, barely believing that he was going to the mat on this one.  We both just saw the coffee slosh from his cup.

“I’m not cleaning that up.  I didn’t do it.”

“Yes you did.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, YOU did.”

“NO I DIDN”T!”

“Are you for real??!!  Why would you push back?  We both saw you do it … and what difference does it make?!!  It’s just a little spilled coffee.  Who cares?!”

“I do.”

“Why?”

“Because. ….  I like to be right.”


Ahhhh there it is.  The answer to it all.  Maybe his passion is “being right.”  


All right, so probably most first-born-teen-age boys can’t escape the urge to “win” no matter how ridiculous and insignificant the situation.  I distinctly remember many a “discussion” between my oldest brother and mother.  Most of which ended with my mom throwing up her hands and my brother smugly walking away.  Now that I think about it, the “right” thing kept going way beyond the teen-age years.  One of his friends once joked that even when my brother changed his position on some critically important topic (maybe something like who starred in some movie), he still wasn’t “wrong” … the facts had changed.  Needless to say, my brother ended up in the perfect place for people who are always right – law school.


Maybe TTO has the same thing in his future.  He will have to figure out the intricacies of hard work to get there, though.  Whatever fueled my brother’s drive to be right all the time found its place in most of his activities (student council, honor roll, championship swimming, so much more) … so is there any hope for TTO??!!  The kid & hard work still don’t mix very well.


s=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: Georgia, ‘Times New Roman’, serif;”>Today my brother uses that passion and his degrees (yes,  plural … he really liked school — maybe something to do with the pool of cute girls) to help people steward their resources well.  He travels all over teaching/speaking/encouraging people toward the “right” way of managing money (National Christian Foundation)… and yes, he’s the boss :)  He’s actually a terrific leader.  We need those people who are direct and intentional to guide us more laid back artsy folk.  The thought of all that responsibility makes me tired.


Yesterday, as we were leaving the orthodontist office, TTO informed me that he needed to know how to manage people, a skill that would come in handy for the day when he’s the boss.  I informed him that he needed to learn how to work before he could boss around others on the subject.  


The kid cracks me up.  I hope someday his dreams come true.  I hope a few of them change (like the one to drive some super fancy car).  I also hope we can get to the root of his passion and help direct him to use that drive to be “right” in a positive way.  Since he hasn’t made any effort to find a job or give us any direction on where he would like to work (other than insisting he will “NOT WORK THIS SUMMER!”), he’ll be trying his hand on a lawn crew.  Since he hates being outside in the heat (Texas summer = 100+ degree days = lots of sweat = exhaustion), it should be interesting.


I’ll keep you posted.  Until then, thanks for walking the road with me. 

:) Kay

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