Babysitting before 15, then waitressing for 4 years, from Perkins on up to an upscale restaurant... great tips!

Just babysitting.

My first job was probably detassleing (sp) corn. That was a great summer job. You had to work long hours, but it paid well. I started babysitting at 14. Moved on to working at the "Popcorn Popper", which was no bigger than most of the bathrooms you see. It held the popcorn popper and a soda fountain. You were barely able to turn around in it. The candy was lined up in the windows. It was tight! Then I moved on to working at Scotti's Drive In. From there, I went to work as a waitress in the local private club.

We didn't have a choice as to whether we wanted to work or not. We just did.

I babysat a lot. My youngest two brothers and sister were toddlers/elementery school age when I was teen. One of dad's coworkers always had me babysit his three boys.

My first 'job' was as a waitress in a pizza joint. My parents wanted me to quit because they thought it interferred with school. I just liked having the tips.

Babysitting, and dishwasher...then nurses aide at the nursing home.

Oh, yes. Beyond babysitting, I worked at KMart from age 16 to age 20. First as a cashier, eventually in the sporting goods/automotive department. I really liked that job, the people were a lot of fun, and there was always something different to do once I was moved to the department. Even in high school, I worked sometimes 30 hours/week at Christmas time, 40 in the summer. I had to pay my own insurance and gas to drive. I also volunteered 6-8 hours/week for a crisis hotline during those years. And was competitive in music and an A/B student. My mom used to have a chart on the frig: Where is Stephanie?

I didn't get into trouble because I didn't have time! ;o)

I babysat for a couple different families and I detasseled corn (I was made supervisor my first day and like Vicki said, it did pay good). I started waiting tables at 18.

a little baby sitting -Once I helped stuff envelopes and made $15 an got my Soc Sec number I did have a job of reading assignments to a blind young man who ws taking some college courses. He was blinded in a firework accident. I remember tutoring a little kid in arithmetic until my mom found out his mother would use the time I was there to go shopping etc.

I worked in a little restaurant that was owned by two sisters.
They had hamburgers, etc., and every day a plate lunch and once a month, Lions Club met there and they cooked for them.

I started out washing dishes and prep cook...and then waiting tables and working the grill and then cashier. It was a fun job. The two women who owned it were excellent cooks. One did all the pies and cakes and the other one the plate lunches. Everything cooked from scratch and they had a big business. The little town was under going a big construction boom, at the time, so lots of boys working summer jobs for the builders, and I met and dated several guys from Houston.

I picked up a lot of cooking hints from those ladies. My mother was a good cook, but they did things a little differently...they were originally from Nebraska. I still make roasts and pies like they taught me.

Baby sat for .25 hr for a few yrs! DUH--that included doing dishes--giving baths etc!
Counselor at Girl Scout camp 2 yrs--then full time at our Elec Co at age 18!

Donna (^_^)

I had my first babysitting job at 11. That same summer I picked berries.
My first "real" job was as a dishwasher in a nursing home when I was 16.

Babysat for .50 cents an hour for a few years. Then I worked at a convenience store and then I was a mother's helper for a wealthy couple. At age 19, I started in the cafeteria at KMart. I worked 32 hours a week while I went to college. I had to support myself by then, but I wanted a career.

My first job was at JCPenney. I was 16 and still in High School. Worked evenings and weekends and in the Summer full time. I loved it and made many good friends there. Pay started at 35 cents an hour!

After graduating, I went to work for the War Department in DC.

Both jobs were learning experiences for me.

Sue

You bet! I started working when I was in Grade 7 and worked throughout my school years. I babysat, taught crafts at a Boy's and Girl's Club and sold souvenirs. When I graduated high school, I had enough money saved to pay for my further education. My parents taught us the value of money and how to budget carefully.

Babysitting from age 13, then working in a shoe store as a cashier at 15 and a sales person at 16. At 19 I started working in a government lab as a technician on campus. Graduated at 22 and have worked ever since (now 56). Working is a huge part of my life and not something I see as a negative thing. I have almost always liked going to work! Yes, I know I'm one of the lucky ones!!! I tried staying home for a few months about 11 years ago and hated it! Only lasted 6 months before I was back in a regular job.

Babysitting,detasseled corn, a car hop, and then worked at my parents clothing store..

Picked strawberries for 3 cents a quart.

Baby sat a little until age 15 when I started part time wait work at a downtown restaurant.

At 18 I got on at The Phone Company as a telephone operator (boy was that fun!) and then held different positions with them in different towns over a span of 30 years before retiring at age 48 with 30 years worked.

I started babysitting at 13 and did that regularly until around 19. At 16/17 I worked in a Mom & Pop market stocking shelves and then I ran the deli from 6 to closing. At 17 I started working for Orchard Supply hardware as a cashier but as soon as I turned 18 I went out on to the floor and worked in the paint department. I LOVED that job. They were a great company to work for.

not exactly unless you count getting married at 18, and going to work at the phone co after graduation...arn't you glad we're not in those days of who got a emgagement ring first as a senior in hs??

my dd's worked retail. in fact one dd kept her job at tj maxx thru graduate school..the younger didn't like it so went to red lobster as a "hostess"...the boys did kmart, and several other places thru college...

I babysat A LOT while I was a teenager. I also worked at a bakery on Saturday mornings, then worked at a day care home, then worked the counter at a pharmacy.

Sheryl

I started babysitting at about 12.Then did gift wrapping during Christmas and other holidays at a couple of high dollar clothing stores when I was 15 and 16.I also worked in a drug store a couple of summers behind the soda fountain.

As a teenager I worked at H. Salt Fish & Chips, a dude ranch and read to the blind.

Reading to the blind was the only job I had where I didn't smell funky at the end of the day. LOL

Jodi-

I worked at the local Drug Store/Soda Fountain and loved it. I also babysat for the Owner's 5 Children. One of the Children today is a good friend of mine.

World War II started in August 1939, when I was half way through being 10.

Dad had a larger than usual farm in our area and our hired hand went to war ... so whatever Dad and this son, plus another nearly 7 and another past 5 got done, got done ... and the rest, didn`t.

Dad bought a combine harvester, as we`d shared work with several neighbours to thresh our grain, but Dad no longer had enough workers to do that, and a milking machine.

I sold some Christmas cards to finance our small high school paper ... and liked it, so sold some magazine subscriptions.

As a farm kid in wartime, got a licence when I was 15 and when Dad was too busy to canvass for the Red Cross, visited neighbours in his stead to do it (as an excuse to drive the car, mainly).

Back to the farm after first year Univ., then away during 4 more summers - doing internship summer student minister, and working on crew with a semi-trailer going town to town taking mass chest x-rays doing anti-tuberculosis surveys (but I was past 20 by then).

ole joyful

I started babysitting for just an hour or two for a family when I was 11. They had 3 kids and later I became sort of a part time nanny who went along on vacations or slept over if they went away for the night.

They ended up divorced and I stayed on through high school. Back then a parent with a latch key kid under twelve was in serious danger of losing custody. So even for the few hours after school that their mother worked I had to be there.

On the weekends their mom and I would take the kids to the beach or whatever if dad didn't have them. We had a lot of fun and became good friends despite the 16 or 17 year age difference.

DD went to work at a sandwich shop when she was 14 and would even go back and work there part time when she was on vacation home from college. After college she had them as one of her accounting contracts and worked for them as a secret shopper for a while.

DS had a paper route and also babysat for a bit. When he turned 16 he worked in a machine shop until he graduated high school.

The only babysitting I did was to stay with my sister when my parents went out and I didn't get paid. We didn't get paid for doing chores (and, believe me, babysitting her was a major chore at times - LOL) as it was considered our contribution to the household. I did get a weekly allowance, however.

So my first job was a summer job at Parkdale, a local drugstore, (cashier and stocking shelves) for $26.75 "take home" a week.

Babysitting and I had 2 paper routes. At 16 I worked at a shoe store.

I worked at a little popcorn shop in Omaha from the time I was 13 (lied about my age...I needed a job)

Worked there until my senior year. I wanted my senior year free to go to all the dances and sporting events.
(lol...but then I didn't have much money to spend)

Worked at J C Penney's for awhile after that,then Mutual of Omaha at Omaha, then at J L Brandies until I got pregant with my first daughter. That was the end of my working outside the home.(I was 23 then)

Heck, I had several jobs before I left my teens.

I was a substitute for a friend with a paper route.

I babysat starting when I was 12.

I worked as a waitress in a catering facility starting at 15.

I worked in an office on campus when I got to college (work/study).

I worked in a publisher's warehouse for two summers when I was in college.

I worked as a file clerk for a surgical practice.

Then I turned 20 and I've still been working ever since.

Babysitting

Answering service on weekends at a real estate office (sold land, not homes)

I started babysitting at 11 or 12, I loved babies. The summer I was 13 I made lots of money babysitting in the evenings for 5 kids while their mom went out with her boyfriend. I charged more after midnight and once they didn't come home until 6 or 7 a.m. I quit that job when I told my mom how the BF reeked of alcohol any time he drove me home.
A couple of summers I worked at the hamburger stand at the lake. That was fun because I worked with my best friend and everyone we knew went to the lake on Sunday afternoons. I made $1/hr and worked 5 hours.
In college I had a Christmas job at JC Penney and then Leed's Shoe store cashering.
I always liked having my own money to spend.

Hoed thistles from pastures.
Did farm work (tractor, disk, cultivate, haul hay, etc)
Hoed soybeans.
Detassled Seed Corn.

I was a farm kid :-)

Worked at B. Altman, a department store in New York City.

babysat until I was 14 1/2 and I was able to get school to give me work credit and get my work permit, Jack-in-The Box was brand new and I got one of the first jobs there. I made $1.25 and hour, a big step up from .50 for babysitting. I took orders, cooked, and on weekends had to wear the Jack costume and take orders outside :( Like Jodi I use to smell like french fries by the end of my shift..

My Dad paid me to iron his white shirts that he wore to work every day. I also worked in his jewelry store when he had to be away.

I picked cotton and took tobacco off the stick. I did some babysitting and I worked all day Saturday in a department store in town. After high school, I did babysitting while in college.

Other than babysitting, when I was 12 I had my first real job. Six nights a week I went to my dentist's house and gave their 3 little boys a bath, picked up toys and folded clothes (mainly diapers). Those kids were holy terrors and I only got .50 a night. On Saturdays, the parents went out and I babysat.

When I turned 15 I got a job as a soda jerk at the local teen hangout. Most fun job I ever had. We made sodas, sundaes, malts, cokes (from the syrup and fizzy stuff) and phosphates (fizzy stuff with cherry, lemon or vanilla syrup). Plus hamburgers, cheeseburgers, ham salad, egg salad, tenderloins, grilled cheese, hot dogs, chili dogs, fries and ice cream cones. The most expensive thing on the menu (as it were) was .30 for a breaded tenderloin. We got .50 an hour plus all you could eat. We had to haul big buckets of ice from the basement icemaker. All the kids hung out there so it wasn't like working really. Except at night we had to clean the place. Scrub the grill, clean out the coke bin, mop floors, etc. AND, clean the restroom. I kept that job after high school during the time I was in secretarial school until I got my first "big girl" job.

My mother (80) worked as a carhop at A & W when a teen. I (60)worked at A & W as a teen. My DD(35) worked at A & W as a teen. Told DD her daughter (3), my DGD, must work at A & W when she is a teen. It's a family tradition now! 3 generations!
Kathy G in MI

babysitting for my nephews

I babysat until I was old enough to get a "real" job. Then I worked in a pizza place and then I worked in a department store.

In HS,from 9-12th grade, I worked at our public library, as a librarian. I started just putting books back on the shelves, then worked the desk - on Wednesday afternoon and Saturday.

Well, let's see. Of course there were the usual home "chores" that were expected. Also I worked for the school district repairing AV equipment, a furniture store moving furniture, a restaurant dishwashing & bussing dishes, and still kept an honor roll average at school.

1. Mowed lawns. Had 3 customers, 2 neighbors and our own yard. No power mower, just a push, reel type. Lucky for me, those yards were not oversized. Two of the lawns were on a route 1.5 miles from my house. I walked to those lawns.

2. Drove a tractor (John Deere model B) two summers. That thing was a shaker - rough on your innards.

3. Was the 'grease monkey' and general repairman for filling station. Worked 3 hrs after school and Saturdays.

4. Bag and carry-out boy for a grocery store. Also helped to stock shelves on Thursday mornings before the store opened.

5. Worked my way through college as a drafstman and designer at a government facility.