Thoughts on Target

It's late and I tend to get a little over the top when it's nearing the midnight hour, but I wanted to get a few thoughts down, and I did promise to do a blog about my lessons learned from my brief three month stint at Target.  So here goes.

Once again, as with all things, no particular order.  Just my rambling thoughts.

(1)  My life is so incredibly blessed!   I think God took this job as a chance to slap me upside the head and remind me of my choice, sweet, lovely existence.  So many of the people working at Target are living - no, scraping by - on their income of $8 per hour.  They are asking for more shifts, they are eating 89 cent bags of potato chips for dinner, they are skateboarding to work or bumming rides off of coworkers.  One girl I worked with really wants to get married, but they can't live off their incomes.  So she got a second job to supplement.

It was a wonderful reminder to me that my life is blessed.  I was working by choice, not necessity. I have a lovely home, plentiful food, my own car and a supportive spouse.  Some days I actually felt guilty taking hours from girls who desperately needed them to pay bills, buy food, and hopefully get engaged.

(2) Work, any work, is honorable.  It doesn't matter if you're running a huge corporation, or gathering carts off the Target parking lot.  Work is an eternal principle and it is good for us to work.  So many times when I first started I was almost embarrassed when I'd see friends come in who I hadn't seen in a while.  Like, "Ya, I'm folding shirts at Target".  I even had a few people say something to me along those lines.  As though I was too good to be folding shirts.  I fold shirts at home all the time and somehow it's more acceptable to do it there than in a retail store.

I think everyone should work retail for a while.  I had NO IDEA how physically, mentally and emotionally challenging it is.  There are impossible amounts of work to do for little pay.  However, at the end of the day you go home feeling like you earned every single cent of your pay check.

Everyone who is working in the world deserves our respect.

(3)  Along those lines....Everyone {except puppy kickers and chocolate haters} deserves our respect.  This job  was a great time for me to learn to talk to anyone.  Yes, all of you who know me think of me as outgoing and social.  But what you don't know is that I spent the first 18 years of my life being painfully shy.  I would be myself with close family and friends, but even with extended family I was quiet.  I find that I fall back into that quiet place when I'm out with strangers.  I don't go out of my way to say hello, and yes, I avoid people who are different than me.

I couldn't do that in retail.  Instead I had to learn to say hi to everyone, regardless of how they dressed, looked, smelled, spoke, or treated me.  And every single one of those people deserved to have a kind word, share a smile, and to leave feeling happy about the way I interacted with them.

I frequently found myself pondering on the many lessons of Christlike charity I have learned over the years.  I often found myself thinking that this was my chance to exercise some of those principles and break down my personal barriers.  I'm grateful for that chance.

(4)  Moms gotta stop hating on each other.  When I first started working at Target I had several friends and acquaintances who would see me there and say some variation of the same thing, "You're working?  I don't know how you can stand to leave your kids, I could never do it!  You're missing out on so much!"

So many times I wanted to reply, "You know what?  I just woke up one day and realized I hated them and wanted to leave, so here I am."

It's ludicrous to think that my getting a job suddenly means I am not being a good mom.  Especially when that was already something that I was worrying about.  Even though I know these women were reacting more in shock than meaning to be hurtful - they have always known me as a SAHM and were surprised to see me working - it was still totally unproductive.  It really made me think back over the years to things I may have said without thinking to moms who were working.

If you are one of those moms, I am so, so, terribly sorry for my ignorance.

Even though my reasons for finding work were all good, even though I prayed and pondered and took all the right steps, I still felt judged.  I felt guilty.  I felt embarrassed.

This is so wrong on so many levels.  We are all mothers doing our best.  We need to be kinder to each other.

On the flip side, a new girl at work heard I was leaving to go back home with my kids and gave me a bit of a tongue lashing over it.  "I can't believe you're doing that.  I would NEVER stay home!  I have a three year-old and I work two jobs just so I won't get bored. I am seriously disappointed that you're making that choice!"

Wow!  Excuse me, but what was your name again, New Girl?  I had probably spoken to this girl for a total of five minutes and here she was jumping down my throat.

At first I was really annoyed by her attitude.  She doesn't know me, my life, my situation or anything about me.  I was tempted to judge her back, thinking how sad it was that she is giving up her daughter's childhood in order to avoid boredom.  But wouldn't that be judging her the same way she was judging me?

In the end, we need to live and let live.  I am happy at home.  Others are happy working.  Some want to be home and can't, some want to work but can't afford day care.  Some wanted 10 kids and only got 2.  Some wanted 2 kids but ended up with 5.

I don't think anyone gets exactly what they want in life.  So wouldn't it just be best to put our arms around each other and say, "What can I do to help your journey be easier?"

I never would have guessed that three months at Target would have given me so many lessons.  Sure, I can fold a mean shirt these says, but more importantly I am learning to be more grateful, less judgmental and more loving to those around me.

So thank you Target.  I guess I earned more there than I thought!