Time continues to fly by where my relationship with my son is concerned so I must be having fun as they say and just recently I got to spend some real quality time with him in the most unexpected of ways when the company that we had lined up to do his 2 week Work Experience had to pull out due to unforeseen circumstances. There was no way Trudie and I were going to have Jaja miss out on what we believe is a very worthwhile and valuable pre-amble to working life, so I went down to his school and offered to step in as his work placement provider and school where more than happy for me to do this and arrangements were made for Jaja to work for two weeks as a Sales Assistant in my retail Menswear store.
Now it would be so easy for me to put on my rose tinted glasses in assessing how my son performed in the fortnight that he worked for me but I can honestly say that had I gone through a recruitment procedure and hired a salaried member of staff then I could not have found anyone better! From the very first day Jaja demonstrated a confidence when dealing with customers (not all of them friendly) and an ability to pick things up quickly that surprised even me, as I already thought he was brilliant! (rose tinted specs again).
He made such a positive impact in the short time he was there to the point where all the guys he worked with were sad to see him leave and even now some weeks later I still have customers coming in-store asking after him and all this makes me so proud of this wonderful young man that I am lucky enough to call my Son. I have a new born respect for him as an adult in his own right and what's more and even better is that he now sees me differently. He now knows and respects what I do 5 days a week to provide for our family and he really appreciates me for it.
I stepped in as a last minute 'Work Placement' provider and got so much more from the experience than I could ever have imagined. I got to see my son fending for himself on a daily basis in the big wide world and I now know for certain that he is well equipped to make his life whatever he wants it to be.
I think the 'Work Experience' scheme is one of the best things the Government is responsible for and the only suggestion I would make is that where possible kids should spend the time working with their parents regardless of their chosen career path because the benefit to all is so much more rewarding than you could ever imagine. I like most parents thought I knew who and what my offspring was all about but the two weeks spent working together in close proximity really opened my eyes and gave me a real insight as to the man my son has grown into and having only stumbled across the opportunity by default I am ever so grateful that I did.
Jaja for his part was really impressed how his old Dad could be on his feet for 10 hours a day then still be fit and fresh enough to drive home with a smile on his face while he fell asleep in the passenger seat exhausted... I know he'll be ready for working life when the time comes so for me that's 'job done' with the bonus that my son thinks I'm really cool... I could not wish for any bigger accolade than that!
