Well, lo and behold...the Christmas tree sellers have arrived from the North Carolina mountains, ready to sell their trees in our town!  Once I saw the early signs of their arrival I mentioned to my 13 year old son that working there on weekends might be a good part time job for him and a chance to earn a little extra holiday gift money!  He was ambivalent to say the least!  Still, I kept discussing it and even stopped by there with him and urged him to go introduce himself and see if they had any openings.  

I have always thought of my son as a pretty confident teenager who is able to look an adult in the eye and have a decent conversation with him or her.   But my suggestion that he go up to a perfect stranger, extend his hand, inquire about a job and follow through on it made him extremely nervous.  So nervous that he wanted me, the mom who usually embarrasses him,  to accompany him.  I said no and he grudgingly got out of the car to perform my request.  (Good thing he got out on his own as he is bigger than I am now so physically "encouraging" him wasn't an option.)  I watched in the rear view mirror as he approached, extended his hand, and made conversation.  When he returned to the car he informed me that  employees at Big John's Trees must be 15 years old!  He seemed relieved. 

I wondered if this age of texting and IMing makes teenagers less able to actually speak face to face with people.  Or has it always been difficult for teenagers to do so with an adult;  cell phones and computers aren't to blame? 

I couldn't help but think though that he gained a little confidence in that encounter and hopefully will be more prepared and a little more eager to do something like that the next time. 

In the end, we decided that when we got home, he'd call 4 or 5 of the families he's babysat for before and offer his services over the holidays.  He got about 7 babysitting jobs by doing that which will probably pay better than the tree lot anyway!  Looks like he might have some holiday pocket money after all!