[Jimmy Jon]

My 15 year old son was on his luch break at school today when this newboy wannabe tough guy said to him 'ha, ha, your dad's a window cleaner!' my son is very protective of his family and replied 'what did you say about my dad?' where he swiftly administerd a right hook and laid the loud mouth out on the floor. The teacher on duty came over and said 'what's wrong with him?' My son said 'You know how I get when people say thing's about my family!' The teacher says 'yes, I know, now get on your way!' I don't condone violence but it did make me laugh when he told me, Is window cleaning really that bad that kids use it as a put down? 

[Frankybadboy]

rough side of town your in 

[bobplum]

it always makes me smile when people get my number from my old plumbing website and before they start i tell them i am a window cleaner and you hear "oooohhoo" and you can just picture them thinking "what?"is he crazy?

buy your son an slx as a thank you present and if he doesn't like it keep for yourself

[AuRavelling79]

rough side of town your in  

He lives further up my road! he's at the posh end too!

Oh and Marc - of course kids use "Your Dad's a window cleaner" as a put down; my youngest is so embarrassed at the thought of me being a windy that I use it as a threat to keep her in line.

e.g:-

If you don't do your homework*/go to bed*/stop being lippy* etc - then I'll come round your school in my van and uniform at turning out time. Even worse I'll quote for the cleaning there, tap on your classroom window, hold up an Awake! magazine and ask loudly if you've done your bible study!  

[Frankybadboy]

rough side of town your in  

He lives further up my road! he's at the posh end too!

 

theres a posh part,iam 

[AuRavelling79]

His area's posher than mine by far! He's got very quiet neighbours opposite ...


The Local Crematorium!

 

[james stanley]

Hi Gold are you a witness then???

[stuart mc]

in my area they are impressed the lad's dad works very unusual on my estate

[colin purewater]

That a boy terry!!  good to her he takes no sh@t

[stuart mc]

aye sorry well done to terry's lad

[Jimmy Jon]

That a boy terry!!  good to her he takes no sh@t
[/quote]

Cheers Colin & Stu, Not only was he sticking up for me but for window cleaners across the land! 

[G Griffin]

Why take it as a put down? Would he have reacted if the lad had said 'your dad is self- employed' ?
Unless it was just because the lad was trying to take the mick.

[Jimmy Jon]

The lad WAS trying to take the mick so he WAS put down 

[DaveG]

it always makes me smile when people get my number from my old plumbing website and before they start i tell them i am a window cleaner and you hear "oooohhoo" and you can just picture them thinking "what?"is he crazy?

buy your son an slx as a thank you present and if he doesn't like it keep for yourself

Better lifestyle now tho eh Bob? I know I have since I packed in that plumbing malarky!

Good on your lad Terry!

[Steve Sed]

My dad was a window cleaner and I hit out at times because of the micky taking.

[gary999]

no one has even brought up the subject with my lad

maybe its because he is a boxer at junior level

[AshWhite]

no one has even brought up the subject with my lad

maybe its because he is a boxer at junior level

Just a shame that he's 28 years old..

[gary999]

no one has even brought up the subject with my lad

maybe its because he is a boxer at junior level

Just a shame that he's 28 years old..

you were half right old sheep fiddler! hes 14

[Paul Coleman]

I used to get a fair bit of that at school too.  My father was a one man band builder but he went window cleaning for a few years in the 60s.  He also did a bit of garden work with my grandfather (his father in law) for a while.  The teasing was merciless "odd job man", "rag and bone man" etc.  I had to smile at Gold's post because my father was (still is) a JW too so the ridicule didn't stop with what he did for work.
Gold put it across in a very humorous way   but I found that being in school amongst all that merciless teasing was very bad for my self esteem.
I can laugh at it now as it's 40 years since I left school but one of the many immediate consequences was that I left the education system with no qualifications - in spite of being quite bright (it was the last year you could leave at 15).
Not to worry.  Living through adversity can be character building and I'm probably a much tougher cookie mentally than I otherwise would have been.
Gold has given me some food for thought if my GF's son starts playing up though   (minus the Awake).

[EandM]

I was at a family event recently that included some members of the current F1 administration and we all got chatting about what we did and I mentioned that I cleaned windows for a living. Cue silence..(tumbleweed blowing across the background)....followed by an interesting and productive chat about methods and application. I pointed out that although I'm somewhat below their pay scale and don't spend half my life travelling around the world I do live somewhere nice and enjoy what I do. General reaction was that enjoying life was far more important than being exceedingly well off but never having time to enjoy it.

I'd never look down on anyone for the work that they did. How many of the mickey taking kids parent's actually own their own business? How many of them are smart enough and motivated enough to make a success of it?