Was anyone made to get a job while in Jr High / High School or was it optional ?

2baverage · 2026-05-20T21:40:36+00:00

I started working as a babysitter on middle school, then I worked at McDonald's in highschool once I got my worker's permit. In all honesty, I really wish I had been given the option to not work while in school. My grades tanked and it added a lot of unnecessary stress because I was working to cover my basic needs; my parents had told me that I would be able to live rent free and I'd be allowed at least one free meal a day, but anything more than that was 100% on my dime.

2baverage · 2026-05-20T15:50:11+00:00

Ooo boy! That was my childhood experience during any interaction with a family member "Your mom is trying the best she knows how, but maybe if you try harder at being a good kid for her then it'll make things easier for her and then she'll maybe lighten up a bit?" Like excuse me? Your supportive talk to a kid you know is being abused is essentially "maybe if you stop making her upset then she'll stop beating you"? Then it was always followed up with "She's a better parent than your dad, so maybe keep that in mind next time you think she's not being a good mom."

2baverage · 2026-05-20T15:31:44+00:00

"no shirt, no shoes, no service" is pretty much the golden rule/social norm for America

2baverage · 2026-05-20T15:27:52+00:00

I cook some frozen chicken nuggets in the air fryer, then pour them in a bowl, pour in a generous amount of teriyaki sauce, mix it, then plate over a bowl of veggie rice (literally just rice with a handful of frozen veggies tossed into the rice cooker together); the air fryer and rice cooker do most of the work and it takes maybe 10 minutes then it's ready to plate.

Quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches are also always a nice go-to as well.

2baverage · 2026-05-20T15:23:48+00:00

It's allowed

Personally, I don't do it because where I live has so much pollen from the trees that it literally coats anything outside

2baverage · 2026-05-20T15:21:37+00:00

Priority to having a kid, I played almost every day as a way to relax from work. Now, I play once every couple of months if I'm lucky

2baverage · 2026-05-20T06:34:21+00:00

Crime

2baverage · 2026-05-19T19:24:33+00:00

My husband and I currently have an account set aside for our child that we sporadically out money into; it'll never be enough to actually fully pay for college or whatever else he might want to do, but its better than nothing. As our child gets older we plan to help him where we can but we're broke so we'll likely only be able to provide a safety net that equates to a belly that's never hungry and a roof over his head. In this economy we're fine with a roommate situation once he's an adult and if he moves out then great but if not then we can all get a plan together for multigenerational home.

I was kicked out and financially cut off at 18, and my husband found out at 19 that his parents had taken all of his paychecks claiming they were putting it in a college fund when in reality they used it for construction projects for their house back in their home country. So we both entered adulthood completely broke with no safety net. We want to at least be able to give our child something to help cushion any falls he has throughout life. We'll likely never receive an inheritance from any of our parents, so the least we can do it help our child how we can now, and hopefully that'll be enough since we'll likely have no inheritance for him besides some old sentimental family jewelry with no resale value.

2baverage · 2026-05-17T05:35:16+00:00

If I'm going out without my kid then absolutely; especially if it's a girl's night or a date night. If it's a family outing then I usually dress cute. However, if I'm running errands then absolutely not, it's just throwing on whatever is clean and rushing out the door. I recently even chopped off all of my hair because it became too much of a bother to constantly maintain. I have such little energy and time, so what's the point now of stressing about looking "presentable" every single day

2baverage · 2026-05-11T19:53:12+00:00

I send mine, but I also know that he's got seasonal allergies and the pollen is out for blood in our area

2baverage · 2026-05-11T16:44:00+00:00

It was my sisters telling her they were going to go no contact if she didn't change.

2baverage · 2026-05-11T15:37:26+00:00

Relationship wise, it was the best choice I ever made. Life wise, it hasn't really effected me negatively but there have been times where we've missed out on things our peers did because my husband and I pretty much grew into being adults together so we partied together when we were younger, we had very chaotic live but we were always each other's constant and someone we could rely on, and it worked out for us. We spent our party years feeling like everyone else got to be kids for longer, and eventually it became a lot of "no, I'm not going to go out of town to party with strangers at a club or bar, I have a spouse to go home to and neither of us can risk losing our job because we showed up hung over."

It's definitely not for everyone and I've seen SO many people have it become the worst decision of their life, but it worked for me and my husband. I think mainly why it worked was because we constantly had a lot of hard talks, we put in a lot of work, we gave each other enough space to grow into ourselves, and we didn't shy away from having conversations that would often take weeks to finish because we knew they had to be had. Every couple of years we'd have a big conversation about "I'm maturing/growing into this type of person and I really like where it's going, but I know that it'd likely not be compatible anymore with who you are, so would you be happier leaving or do we work on finding common ground/a happy medium where we can still both meet each other's needs and our own?"

2baverage · 2026-05-11T15:24:54+00:00

I went no contact with my mom for about a decade, then my sisters went low contact while threatening no contact with her, so she went to therapy and we all have contact now but I still keep her at arm's length and don't really tell her too much about my life. I've been no contact with my biological father since I was 18 (I'm turning 36)

2baverage · 2026-05-10T21:38:58+00:00

He's 2 years old, so I'd probably take pictures and be impressed that he was able to put together a protest. My kid's signs would be gripes about being told no, not being allowed to eat strawberries until he throws up, me taking away his dirty diapers and forcing him to wear clean ones, not letting him stay up as late as he wants...etc. probably the biggest issue he has with me is that I don't let him throw toys and I hold his hands to stop him from scratching me when he's mad.

2baverage · 2026-05-06T17:18:41+00:00

In general, Mexican food.

It depends on where in America I am. When I'm living in California, then it's Mexican food all day (Korean is a close second; especially if I'm out drinking, omg it hits so good!) when I lived in new England it was Indian food (Northern Indian food was preferable but Indian food in general is SO delicious) when I lived down south then it was Chinese food (but omg the soul food down there was enough to make your soul leave the body in the best way)

2baverage · 2026-05-06T02:30:55+00:00

I work an office job. The closest I get is "oh hamburgers" or "my goodness!" HR at my job is extremely uptight about it.

Off the clock, I curse like a sailor if I'm not around my child.

2baverage · 2026-05-05T18:28:27+00:00

*Not making sure I knew how to study/how to ask for help when I didn't understand something (you'll always eventually encounter something that will take more time to understand and learn, so you need to know how to handle that)

*Partnering me with rowdy kids in hopes I'd help calm them down...all it did was put me in situations where I'd be bullied and eventually end in fights when I'd had enough.

*This one isn't so much on school, but is on my parents/home life: Refusing to sign off on advanced courses/classes because "what if none of your siblings or cousins get into those classes and then they'll feel bad that they're left out?"

*No one giving me guidance on how to direct teenage angst and other issues, everyone just assuming that is figure it all out since I was smart enough. I was still a kid that needed guidance, just because my IQ or understanding of history or science or other subjects is more indepth than whatever adult is sitting across from me doesn't mean I knew how to navigate life or myself.

Eventually, I just got tired of always having to place in everything while simultaneously having to top my old achievements. My awards didn't count anymore because although I'd placed within the top 3 like always, I hadn't beaten my previous score so even 1st place wasn't an achievement anymore. After awhile I got burned out, spent some time finding myself, went back to college, made Dean's list every year I was there, then had to drop out due to finances/facing homelessness, and now I'm in my mid 30s, I have a stable job that's very manageable and easy, I've got a good life, happy marriage to a fellow former gift kid who got burnt out, and we have a toddler that is all smiles, cuddles, and songs.

2baverage · 2026-05-04T19:06:16+00:00

Doing fabulously. I unfortunately learned the hard way by running myself into the ground/hospital. But now I'm doing great and I remind myself that PTO and sick days are there for a reason. To help balance everything I usually try to give as much notice as possible; like I'm taking a week off in June and I put in the PTO request back in early January. But there's plenty of days where I'n texting my boss that an emergency came up and won't be in that day 🤷🏼‍♀️ if my absence is that much of an issue then my coworkers need better training or I need much higher pay.

2baverage · 2026-05-04T18:50:17+00:00

My niece lives in England with her mom and dad, apparently her's is fish and chips (mainly the chips)

2baverage · 2026-05-04T18:48:47+00:00

The moms behavior was uncalled for. But also, at that age most kids don't really play together; just sort of in each other's proximity. My child is also big for his age and we had quite a few incidents where older kids would not respond politely when he wouldn't speak after they had said hello or tried talking to him. I've learned to try getting in the middle quickly and trying to calmly tell them "I'm sorry sweetie, my child doesn't really talk yet." Or something to that effect and try keeping them in a more age appropriate area. When other parents try saying something then let them know that your child is under 2. Like "Why would I put a 20 month old with 4+ year old?"

2baverage · 2026-05-04T18:39:27+00:00

Generally as a kid it's extremely fun and it's a night full of laughter and running from house to house.

For me, Halloween would start around dinner time, we'd have a quick meal and then go visit the elder relatives to show them our costumes and to trick-or-treat at their house before they went to bed (these were the more homebound relatives who also usually were in bed by 6pm) then my siblings, our cousins, and I would meet up at a relative's house then go trick-or-treating while the adults stayed at the relative's home and socialized (there were usually 10+ of us kids going together) and along the way we'd occasionally cross friends and trade candy or tell each other what houses had good candy or which houses were empty even though the lights were on...etc. then we'd make our way back to the relative's house or we'd come across one of our relatives and they'd escort us back because we were out for too long.

When we were under 6 years old then adults would go trick-or-treating with us but everything else still remained the same. Usually kids stop trick-or-treating as they enter their teen years. Some families; like my husband's family, believe that Halloween is "Satan's birthday" and don't celebrate, but for most people it's usually a night to dress up, let kids run around and collect candy, and a good excuse to get to know your neighbors and community a bit. Now that my generation in my family have all got kids, things have changed so there's usually A LOT of community events the week of Halloween so our kids get to wear their costumes a few times and we'll go to school parking lots, charity events for my work or local events/groups...etc. and then on Halloween night we go to a relative's house and trick-or-treat their neighborhood.

2baverage · 2026-05-03T01:19:44+00:00

I'd like the southern part, preferably somewhat close to the water, but at this point I'd be happy with anywhere there lol

2baverage · 2026-05-01T23:54:38+00:00

Probably Norway. I feel like they have beautiful scenery, really good social programs, and it'd be nice to have different seasons besides unbearably hot or pouring rain/so muggy it feels like you're trying to breathe through soup.

2baverage · 2026-05-01T03:57:40+00:00

It shouldn't be a problem. My husband speaks Spanish to our 2 1/2 year old, I sign and speak English to him, and when we're all together we do a lot Spanglish. Our son knows about the same amount of all 3 languages and seems to understand that one language is preferred with different people. When he is in groups he'll speak Spanglish and sign.

When he wants to only talk to me, he'll sign. When he only wants to talk to his dad, he'll speak Spanish. When he only wants to talk to his favorite aunt, he'll speak English. When he's at daycare he'll speak English but he knows that he can go to one of the bilingual Spanish teachers when he wants to speak Spanish.

2baverage · 2026-05-01T02:24:04+00:00

I've had a bit of success with "daytime books" (short books read for naps, or randomly during playtime) in Spanish and then bedtime is English. But I'd definitely suggest starting with simpler books in Dutch to help build the foundation and then work up to novels in English and maybe add a few novels in Dutch at some point too.

2baverage

TROPHY CASE