Jobs

COH Under 18 yrs. Joined: Oct 28, 2007 Posts: 25

Did your hoarder parent never really have a proper job because they "didn't have the time" or "didn't have the energy"? Fully believing that them staying at home would allow the time for them to clear...infact my mother even stopped giving me lifts to school after an (..another) arguement on the premise that she needed the time...however nearly a year in to the "no-lifts" rule and my house is worse not better.
I would love to know if anyone else lives with not much money because their hoarder parents refuses to get a job?
xx

Valued Member Joined: May 08, 2008 Posts: 23 Location: CA

My mother never used the house as an excuse to not work, but she never had a job very long. The job was never good enough for her and she always had to quit over some "principle" of hers. The city actually paid for her to go to college to get an accounting degree. She was like one class away from the degree and she quit because the instructor of one of her classes "wasn't grading the other students fairly"?! Go figure. The sad thing was that she was really pretty smart and could have really done well if she would have let herself. I think she couldn't work for the same reason that she couldn't keep the house clean. She was afraid that she couldn't be perfect and since running away from the challenge would be imperfect, she had to find someone else to blame it on.

COH Under 18 yrs. Joined: Oct 28, 2007 Posts: 25

Well i was an accidental baby (but a good accident,..or so my mum says!) so my mother is quite old now into her 60's. She has had extremely good jobs in the past (including managing director of a large pharmeceutical company) which she held down for many years. However now she is into her "retirement" age she seems determined to have a retirement despite having to still look after me as i am still legally under her care. I agree that she should enjoy her retirement but i'll be gone in a year anyway. I just wish she'd work in a supermarket or anything to give our household some cash flow and make a dent in our surplus debt! Maybe this isn't a hoarder characteristic but simply my stubborn mum. I just thought there could be a link as one of the characteristics is never being able to get anything done..i thought this could include getting a hold of a job!

COH & ACOA Joined: Jul 22, 2006 Posts: 2031 Location: Cabo

Hi Ames-
My mom never had a job. I remember thinking as a child that my mom's job was "going out every day and getting stuff."

Getting and talking about tending to the stuff, the grand plans for all the stuff, seemed/s to be her role in life.

On the other hand, my aunt who is also a hoarder had a long career (now retired) and my brother (hoarder) has worked at the same place for over 25 years I think.
I can't figure it out.

Donna

COH Under 18 yrs. Joined: Oct 28, 2007 Posts: 25

Yeah it is odd, i guess like all other mental illnesses there must be a spectrum of how badly affected people are. Of course individual differences will also play a part, I find it interesting to know though what is just a characteristic of my mum and what little things are because of her illness - different to distinguish sometimes!