A Job Offer

I have been teaching Italian teens for years. Some of them complain that they cannot find work, even when they are of legal age, 18 in this country. It often comes up in a conversation about how industrious American adolescents are and how they work throughout high school and college.

Usually the problem stems from age and contracts; there isn't enough work to go around in Italy even for the adults, so teens don't get included in the mix.

I was caught off-guard this week in my new neighborhood by a girl, who I think is about 14 years old. As soon as she saw me walking my dog, she came to her house's gate, pet my dog for exactly 5 seconds and then offered her services as a dog-sitter, should I ever be interested. Honestly, I barely knew how to react. I wasn't used to this kind of entrepeneurship by such a young girl in this country. I had never met her before. She didn't know my dog, unless she had met him on a walk with my husband. It did explain why I had seen some older ladies in the same house eying me from the terrace as I passed by the house at other times. Maybe they had been scouting me as potential new customer for the adolescent/family side business.

In the end I said, "Grazie e buona sapersi (good to know)."