When I was growing up, I worked in a grocery store, as a bus boy, bar back and waiter, and as a house painter. My parents reside in an assisted living community and our family likes to go out for ice cream on the weekends, so a lot of the people we meet are working in those kind of jobs. And, of course, you already knew that Barack Obama and I shared the experience of working for Project Vote and serving as community organizers in poor urban communities in the United States.
President Barack Obama and wife Michelle both worked minimum-wage jobs before they got law degrees: a character-building experience they said they also want their teenage daughters to share.
The president scooped ice cream at Baskin-Robbins, waited tables at an assisted-living facility for seniors and also worked as a painter. The first lady worked at a book binding shop.
“I think every kid needs to get a taste of what it’s like to do that real hard work,” Michelle Obama said in an interview with Parade magazine, slated to run on Sunday.
“We are looking for opportunities for them to feel as if going to work and getting a paycheck is not always fun, not always stimulating, not always fair,” the president said. “But that’s what most folks go through every single day.”
Personally, I think this is a mistake by the Obamas. They are making a fine point and their intentions are good, but this puts a giant bullseye on their daughters who will now be criticized for taking jobs that pay anything above minimum wage.
The first couple has taken pains to keep their daughters Malia, 16, and Sasha, 13, out of the public eye while in the White House. But Malia was recently spotted on the set of a CBS television program, working as a production assistant for a day.
Needless to say, Barack and Michelle didn’t have the opportunity to work as production assistants for a day at a major television network. If they had had opportunities like that, they probably wouldn’t have been very interested in serving lunch to seniors or doing book-binding for minimum wage.
Taking jobs like that does build character, but it’s kind of an artificial experience if your father is the president of the United States of America.
What’s refreshing here is that the Obamas are not “taking on airs.” They don’t want their daughters to act like they are more important or powerful than other people, even though they actually are very privileged girls. Michelle and Barack want their daughters to share some of the experiences they went through so they will have respect for hard work and working people. And that’s admirable up to a point. But Malia and Sasha are not going to be painting my house or scooping my ice cream, and there is nothing wrong with that. They should not be set up to be criticized for enjoying advantages in life.
Parents work to make life easier for their children than it was for themselves, and when they succeed there should not be recriminations. Teaching your children where they came from and to have respect for folks at all scales of the economy is sufficient. They don’t have to live your lives to carry on your values.
