How many of your parents jobs can you name?

[ThisPlumShark]

2 supermarket and office for both.

Dad trained as an electrician after leaving school and worked for an automatic doors company for a few years. He once fitted doors on the QE2 (but this is going back to the early 80s!). Then he worked in factories mostly, maintaining the machines that made things. His last job before retirement was making an additive for bread until operations moved to the Far East.

Mum was a telephone operator in the late sixties and early 70s. Men used to ask her out when she connected calls. Then she got married (met Dad at a party) & had my brother & me. She'd pick up odd jobs like cleaning or the odd shop shift. When we were at primary school she attained a degree in social sciences at the OU. Then she went through various PA and Admin jobs until she was office manager. Again due to circumstances (the council went bust) where she worked (LA education) her job no longer existed in the "New World" so she took retirement. She does voluntary work now, she used to be secretary for a few organisations she was involved in, but now she works part time as a volunteer librarian in a community library. Never stops, my mum.

Yes.
Lots of people train for a career and stick with it.
More so in the past than today, I think.

Mum worked as a shop girl, office work at a local printers, barwork in pubs, secretary at local council and a school then finished up as a receptionist/jill of all trades at the local police station.
Dad started out in the merchant navy and rose from ships boy to quartermaster. then after an accident which possibly gave him brain damage he left and became a labourer at the council then for the water board. At the water board he mostly unblocked drains, cut grass, moved furniture and shovelled a lot of shit at the sewage works. A far cry from being at the helm of the QE2 but he loved being out doors.

Mother:
Student nurse.
Wife.
Brief stint as a dinner lady.

Father:
Theatre Technician.

Also, lots don't, and didn't.

I've only had one job! I've been a teacher employed by the local authority for 25 years now. 20 years more service until retirement!

I can do 16 for my dad (including different roles held at the same organisation).

And 7 for my mum.

I may be missing a couple of teenage/uni jobs for both of them.

Teacher & teacher. For 40 years. I can also name their other school responsibilities.

Better off asking if parents can name your job. No. I don't even know what it is, but i showed up in an office daily for 20 years.

People always go on about how middle class MN is but these jobs are predominantly very working class. Of course MNers themselves might be MC but it's clearly way less MC that people make it out to be

I can name pretty much all of my dads I think.

Im a bit more hazy about my mums as she was a sahm for several years and died when I was little.

DH and I have both worked at the same places, albeit in different roles, since before DC were born so they know what we do. But they probably have minimal knowledge about our previous jobs unless we have mentioned them in passing for some reason.

My dad's have been with lots and lots of different firms (he's a contractor who's been self-employed for long periods) so I know the broad gist of it but not necessarily everywhere he's worked because there've been dozens of places.

My mum, might have a better chance - I know where her Saturday job was a teenager, then she was a nanny, then bar work, then various cleaning jobs over the years.

My mother worked in a bank and my father was an accountant. Both are deceased.

My mum was a barmaid in her younger years then worked at a manufacturing plant. She was a SAHM for a long time then worked in a patents office before becoming a bookkeeper and taking her accountancy exams in her 50s.

My dad was a butchers boy as a youngster. He left school at 15 and trained as an upholstery apprentice before starting his own business making quality leather furniture for embassies, hotels, yachts and interior designers all over Europe. He did that until he retired.

A teacher & an accountant. But other stuff too, as they got older - Dad's roles were commercial & involved us moving around the country. It scared us at the time but, with hindsight, those changes were the making of me.

Parents' jobs:
Royal Marines, Lorry Driver, Dairy worker
Shop assistant

Grandparents' jobs:
Army (WW1), Butcher
Millworker
Army (WW1), Plumber & Gas Fitter
Servant, children's nanny

Great-Grandparents' jobs:
Mason
Servant
Distillery worker, Farmer
Servant
Railway worker
Lace Maker
Army, Railway worker
Servant

Great-Great Grandparents' jobs:
Carpenter
Servant
Agricultural Labourer
Servant
Farm Servant
Farmer's daughter, helping on farm
Farm Servant
Dressmaker
Agricultural Labourer
Lace Maker
Agricultural Labourer
Servant
Groom, Husbandman
Servant
Shoemaker
Glovemaker

It's about opportunity I think. My ancestors were all working class (apart from one line of farmers who go back to landed gentry & aristocracy). They didn't have the chance to stay at school and gain qualifications whereas I (born 1950s) went to Grammar School and became a teacher, then Headteacher. My adult children had a typically middle class upbringing and have professional jobs. It's probably a familiar story in many families.

@Shetlands I completely agree. Education changed everything. I have farmers on my Dads side but the farm wasn't bought until my grandad married into money. More farmers! They valued an education though. My other Grandad did a load of jobs. However his last 2 jobs were tenant farmer and inn keeper. He was also a driver to a General in WW1 so never got near a trench. He didn't value education, only hard graft, and barely tolerated DM going to a grammar school.

Me and my siblings went to a grammar school but our great grandfather signed with an X. He couldn't write. So in 150 years we went from not being able to write to my DD being offered a place at Oxford. It's all about education and how we became middle class via aspiration, ability and education. Doors opened that were not possible for previous generations. They needed money - they worked. The rise of the MC was triggered by valuing education,

Most of them

Company solicitor - and the many businesses he worked for!
Secretary/Legal secretary/PA - various jobs pre-children, then long standing career in a single (household name) organisation at PA to the CEO (who was lovely!).

Toolmaker and nurse

Dad: Master Mariner/marine Pilot.
Mum: Nurse. Stopped work for a fair while when we were born, went back bank/part time when we were in secondary, then stopped for health reasons not long after.

Dad: accountant, then naval officer.
Mum: secondary school teacher