My parents forced me to work in a grocery store job at the age of 16. I was very resistant. Looking back, I am so very glad that they made me do it.
I also worked in a grocery store when I was 16 and it was a ridiculously cushy job. I did everything from bagging to grocery return to cart collection to being a checker.
My dishwasher job at 14 was easy peasy too. Scrape off plates, rinse them off, put them in the dishwasher. Came home filthy but the work was definitely not hard.
My work wasn't part of a character building exercise given to me by my parents though. The amount of work I did directly controlled how many holes my clothes had when I went to school.
I worked in a grocery store at 16 bagging groceries/pushing carts. My first job was working in the family restaurant at 13 for a few years washing dishes. I enjoyed the work, it gave me time to think. I definitely did not want to work these type of jobs for the rest of my life. I see this being the reason my grandmother pushed me to work at these places. It was not mentally challenging but physically challenging at times. In the summer it could get 100 degrees and pushing carts across hot pavement I thought my shoes were going to melt. While bagging groceries, I picked up how to use the register by just watching and also learned a lot product codes. The only one I remember now is Banana - 4011 only useful at Safeway self check out. I would take over a register when we got real busy. All this I can see now helped me vision my future and I thank my grandmother for the kick in the ass.
