First Paid Job

I might have thought I would need to wait for Lilly to be just a titch older than four before she got her first paid job - but , well - she has determination and passion which cannot be held back!

Today at the hairdresser, we were there much much longer than we had anticipated. ( that is an entirely different story which I won’t go into here) Lilly was so patient, read gossip magazines, commented on hair styles and dresses ( she likes Paris Hiltons hair but not her dog - why is that lady taking a dog in her handbag to a party? - why indeed?)

She dropped a piece of paper on the ground and I asked her to pick it up and put it in the bin. Sh elooked at me and said - but the floor is so dirty anyway mummy.

The head Hairdresser laughed out loud and got one of the girls to bring Lilly a broom - saying she cold tidy it up if she wanted to. the floor was a disgrace - they had no apprentices and it was a 10 chair salon - 4 girls working double time ( my hairdresser had two other people as well as my cut on at the same time) She stage whispered to me saying that lots of little girls do the same thing and usually push a few things around and then get sick of it.

Miss Lilly got that look in her eye and set about to working. She moved chairs and swept under the counters, she moved the hairdressers trolleys and tidied every inch of that salon. The head hairdresser announced she would offer her an apprenticeship right then and there as Lilly was far better than 99% of the 16 year olds she had had in the past.

The other girls laughed and kept cutting hair. Lilly stood one of them up and told her off for messing up her tidy floor ( she had been rude enough to cut hair and leave it around the chair!!)

You should have seen the enormous pile of hair Lilly had by the time she had cleaned everything up! The head hairdresser said that Lilly had a better attitude and work ethic of people 4 times her age and wished she was 10 years older.

She was rewarded with a lollypop and one dollar. The smile has not yet left Lillys face. The Head Hairdresser said on more than one occasion that when I come in next, that Lilly is welcome to stay while I am shopping and she can sweep the floors.

In the care going home, I asked Lilly if she would like to think about changing her career ambitions. No - she said firmly. I can sweep floors till I am old enough to be a animal doctor ( a vet) I don’t think I’ll have trouble getting her to get a job somehow…...

on dead things

"No - he’s not asleep, he is all chopped up and dead; but hes coming alive and going to eat you up."

No its not a Saturday night horror film snippet - its part of an overheard conversation between Miss Lilly and a 4 year old friend playing with farm animals..... One would think that those cute little plastic sheep and cows had nothing more sinister about them but day old slime from being chewed on by the younger visitors.

Its disturbing to say the least to listen in on a four year olds creative play at the best of times, realising how much influence television shows have on them - especially the accents. I flush thinking my kids don’t actually watch alot of TV - and try to justify the times they do in the mornings mostly….and then ponder on those families who have the TV on constantly. The children aren’t allowed to watch violent or scary things - not even Doctor Who - so I wondered where the dialogue has come from…. but then it dawns on me….. a reflection on my writing … as Lilly often asks to be read what I am working on and its not often that I am able to read much more than an introduction before I have to stop and give an abridged version of the gory tale I had been concocting.