I had my children at 19 and 21. I stopped everything and devoted my life to them. Working in restaurants so I would be able to have more freedom to be at their schools, sports, and clubs. It was also very good money without having to work a crap load and them grow up in daycare.
Now their older 12 & 15 and I can devote some time into my future. I’m only 34 and know I’m still young enough to begin a new career. Problem is that I’ve put all my energy and thoughts into my kids for the past 15 years and I don’t know who I am…my daughter will start college in 3 years and I don’t want to be a loser with out a college degree or a real career. I want to be able to help her pay for college and my kids have someone to be proud of.
How do you figure it out. So afraid I’ll go to school for something I will end up hating because right now I feel like I’m inny minny miny moeing it…I really don’t know how you spell that. But you get the point.

I fear my wife and I, after 22 years together and 10 years of marriage) are growing apart to the point of no return. I never imagined it would ever happen!! Is this a relationship worth saving or is it time to move on without one another?

We started dating when I was 14 and she was 13. We had a tumultuous high school relationship. We had many breaks during those 4 years and then longer ones during college when we both had relationships that lasted over a year and a half. We’ve been together continuously for the past 14 years.
We have two children who are 1.5 and 4.5. My wife stays home with the children and I work to provide. A few years ago, my professional business had me taking home about $175k / year. When the banks stopped giving my clients money, work dried up, I couldn’t maintain enough work to justify the monthly business costs and I dissolved my business partnership.
For the past year I have been bartending and just two months ago was asked to be the general manager of a new restaurant. I have felt so much better over the past year. Having been in school and then an office for 12 years, it was great to get out and meet people daily, make sure they were having a good time, working from the minute I walked in the door until I left. No more sitting at my desk emailing friends, messing around on the internet - come on…you know what I’m talking about:)
Anyhow, before this time, when I was working normal hours and returning at normal hours, my wife and I never really did anything. For the most part we’ve been couch potatoes for the past 14-15 years. Given the opportunity, we’d sooner have sat on the sofa, smoked some pot and watched tv and movies. All the time. 8 years ago we smoked cigarettes in our condo. disgusting. So we’d sit there and get high and chain smoke while flipping channels all night. 4 years ago, same thing - just no cigarettes. 3 months ago, do something productive during the kids’ naptime? No…sit and space out. Now that I’m working the hours that I am and with the satisfaction I get from personal interactions during the day and night, tv has no appeal to me.
For virtually our entire relationship, if we had free time we chose to spend it together. We liked being around each other so much I skipped sports practices all through high school. We both had only one or two close friends and also had many acquaintances. As we got older, it was still our preference to just be home alone with each other. During this course of time we managed to probably show up to see friends for drinks, attend a friend’s wedding, answer the phone (or return a call), etc. about 20% of the time. Reason #1? She didn’t want to go. She never wanted to go. Reason #2? I allowed her to make this decision for us. I used to say ‘we missed this _____ because of her.’ I recently realized that we missed, or at least I did, these events not because of her but because of me! I should have had the balls or whatever to put my foot down and said ‘Too bad, get dressed. This is important to me and important to them’, but I allowed her and her behaviors like this one to interfere with my life, the lives of other’s and the way I see her.
Furthermore, she is a stay at home mom who doesn’t really cook (yes for the kids, rarely for herself or for me), doesn’t put much effort into keeping the house that I work so hard for, and tells me that I don’t do enough around the house to ease her load! Oh yeah, I just opened a new restaurant and work 60-20 hours a day.

Now a Little About Me
At the same time, I am an ambitious person. I have lots of ideas - some are just ideas and some are the reason we have a roof over our heads, and a very nice roof at that. My mind is always going, even when it shouldn’t be sometimes. My wife doesn’t like it. Any new interest I have earns me a ‘it’s just one more thing to take you away from us.’ She claims I’m not present enough when I’m with her and the kids - which no matter how much time it is, apparently, is never enough.
I have ideas. Some are crap. Some aren’t. I’ve got ADHD, whatever that means to this discussion, but I’m predisposed to being fidgety and anxious. That’s not to say though that I can’t easily sit back and space out and be lazy. Clearly from what I’ve already said, I’ve fallen back on that behavior plenty over the years. And that, to me, is a huge part of my/our problem. I don’t like to use the term ‘dumb it down’, but whatever the right way to say it is…I reduce my ambition, my drive, etc. to more closely make us a better match. She has no interests, no hobbies - never has and I can’t imagine she ever will. I don’t know that I buy this whole business of finding something together. There have been a number of things over the years that I’ve attempted to get her interested in

Recently my employer made a poster that reads “Vaccinations” at the top and lists every employee with 2 boxes next to each name. One that says FLU and one that says H1N1. Whenever someone tells them they got vaccinated they check off the boxes by your name. I find this completely unethical and don’t know what to do about it. Another thing that is similar to that is our “Wall of Shane” and any time you make a mistake that costs the company money (I work in a restaurant) they write your name and what you did wrong. What do I do?
They said the vaccines are not required they are simply “encouraging”

I am despeate for money and looking to work somewhere, Not too hard, no people who judge you for being different or shy and nervous sometimes? Which fast food restaurant is the best? I feel like I screw up everything in my life and I need to work in a place that I feel comfortable enough at.

I’m graduating at the end of this year, and am going to be a full time student at a local community college. I would also like to work a full time job at the same time, I plan on doing classes heavy 2 days a week. And working the other 5, anyone know of any good places to hire a kid like me, clean cut, 95 HS GPA. I’ve been workingn since I was 14 at a restaurant.

So anyone know any companies where I can make some decent money, work a lot of hours, and would hire me with only a HS degree (going for associate’s and transfering after of course)?

Thanks

I work for a small town restaurant. My boss always pays me on Saturdays at the end of my shift. Today he didn’t show up, and someone said he’d be in around 5, so i picked up my daughter and came back to get my money. when i walked in and asked about it he flew off the handle in front of all the clocked in employees, and my daughter. He accused me of stealing over 500 dollars over the past month or so, saying i was the only “denominating factor” that made seance, and since he knows I need money really bad right now, He’s pretty sure it was me. I stood there totally shocked for a few minutes, walked outside and put my daughter back in the car, than when i went in i basically asked him what proof he had, and to take it somewhere private. Well he didn’t have any proof, other than im the most likely suspect because im the person most in debt. I work for him 6 days a week, different shifts every day, and whenever he calls me in im there. After he got the initial accusations out, he than explained to me that he owed the IRS 25,000 dollars in back taxes, couldn’t feed his family, and was about to loose his house…He said no one at the restaurant cared about him, and it always looked like shit. I feel bad things are going terrible for him, but at that point i was pissed and basically said that didn’t have anything to do with me. I told him i didn’t need a job bad enough i was going to get accused of stealing, and basically told him in a nice way that he was a bastard and left.. Later i called him and asked for my job back since i kind of quit, and he said it was fine and we would talk tomorrow. What do you think this is really about?
X, I didn’t have anything to do with it. lol.
Anon- Hes got four cameras, any of which he could readily watch…but he rarely dose.

I work at a restaurant and got some tips today.I went to a bank to deposit it and then the bank teller told me 2 of $20 bills were counterfeit.
They confiscated those bills and told me they are sending them to the secret service. They didn’t ask me any questions or anything.
I had no idea they were counterfeit so I wasn’t worried about it, but my husband is worried that the government might come in and start asking me questions.
Am I in trouble?
Thanks for reading.