The last four years my dad and I haven’t been very close. Sometimes we wouldn’t talk for two weeks. Sometimes we wouldnt talk because i didn’t want too but other times we wouldn’t talk because he didn’t call. I gave up on him for a nearly a year.  I was sick of trying to build a relationship with a father that didn’t seem to care. 

It all steamed from his work and his traveling.  Dad was away most weeks from Monday to Friday when I was growing up.  He was tired when he got home. Looking back on it now he didn’t really know me.  I have two brothers who I had to competed with for his time.  I felt the odd one out.  My older brother had the same interests as dad, biking. My younger brother was the comedian and took up lots of his attention. I know now this is not true, Dad has always been very proud of me.   He was working hard to give us all a great life. 

About one year ago I started helping Dad out at his workshop. During this time dad and I have become closer.  A lot of my friends give me a hard time and say I’m not really working.  But for me it’s been a great opportunity to work part time for dad and I’d take it over any other job.

People (my mum included) think working for my dad isn’t a ‘real job’. I wonder what is a ‘real job’ ? The definition of a ‘real job’ is ‘a job which requires the employee to, work regular hours for a consistent wage.’ So isn’t that what I am doing.  I think working for a family member is harder.  You have to prove yourself and everyone is looking at you checking that you don’t slack.

I’ve learnt so much. Dad has made his workshop very user friendly so that when I do work for him I can do most things safely and by myself.  By user friendly I mean that dad has made templates for most of the things he gets me to cut or make. The things he gets me to make are wooden bases for his hot tub’s, cutting insulation for the hottub, cutting pipe insulation, cutting pipes for spa’s, cutting metal for torcher racks, packing hottub’s and packing bathtub’s. All of these thing are a bit boring and repetitive but its taught me a-lot.  I’ve learnt about the process of making a hot tub and it’s the small things that count. Every part of a hot tub is important and if the little things aren’t done right it doesn’t fit. It’s made me enjoy doing other things that are boring because I now know about the process to get to the end.

there are definitely some bad things about working for family. I think it is a bad idea to have a full time job, because although your spending a-lot of time together and thats good it can also have its down sides. Everyone needs there alone time and maybe some days your not in a good mood which you are most likely to take out on family. so with family being your boss it isn’t the nicest time at work.