I was talking to a friend today and she mentioned that last week, while she was at the hair salon, a conversation began that centered on women who waitress.  Now, my friend lives in Las Vegas, commonly known as sin city or better known for the slogan, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.’  Anyway, my friend said that one of the ladies’ in the salon stated that casino waitresses make between $80,000 and $130,000 per year.  This revelation began a barrage of comments from the other women in the salon.  Some women said that waitresses are really nothing more than prostitutes.  Other women said that it didn’t matter how much money a waitress made, it wasn’t worth it because the waitresses had to put up with drunken men, touching them inappropriately.  One woman said, she wouldn’t mind drunken men touching her if she was making $80,000 a year!  A few women said they wouldn’t do it because they didn’t have the personality for it and if a man made unwanted advances toward them or touched them inappropriately, they (the women) would be putting their hands on the men, but not in a pleasurable manner.  Lastly, some women said they wouldn’t do it because their husbands would not approve.

Just to see what the average waitress salary really is, I Google ‘average waitress salary.’  According to http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-Waitress, as of July 23, 2008, the average waitress salary is $37,000.  Based on this, one can only surmise that the originator of the conversation in the Las Vegas salon did not know what she was talking about or Las Vegas is the exception to the average waitress salary.  In any case, just for argument’s sake, let’s  pretend that waitresses actually do make $80,000 per year.

By now, you may be wondering how this relates to your daughter.  Here’s how:  if your daughter told you she was working as a waitress, without revealing her salary, how would you feel?  Would you be happy for her or would you want better for her?  You know how parents like to brag on their children — would you brag about your daughter working as a waitress?  Now, let’s kick this up a notch.  Let’s just say you were not happy with your daughter working as a waitress and you told her as much.  But then, she informed you that her yearly salary was, at a minimum, $80,000 per year.  Would your opinions change?  If you were not bragging about her career choice before, would you start to brag about it?  Let me ask you this last question:  what would you teach your daughter about career choices?  Would you tell her that reputation is better than the amount of money she makes per year OR would you tell her money is the most important thing –it doesn’t matter how it is earned?

I ask these questions because next month, my daughter will be born and I know how I feel about this – I don’t think I would be able to accept it if my daughter chose to work as a waitress.  Not that there’s anything wrong waitressing IF it’s done to help put oneself through college.  But as a career choice?  I can’t wrap my mind around that concept.  Yes, I understand that the minimum salary is $80,000 per year, but still.  It just doesn’t sit well with me — at least not as a career choice.  Anyway, maybe I’m way off base on my thinking.  Let me know your thoughts on this subject.  It should be very interesting……