These days, it can feel like parents have two jobs: Keeping their own, and finding one for their kids.
Linda Smith of Riverside, California, spent hours last week on the side of the road holding a sign saying she’d pay $500 to anyone who found her daughter a job, Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. The 36-year-old daughter, Lisa, has been her mom’s caregiver ever since Linda was hit by a drunk driver in 1996, resulting in a mild form of dementia caused by head trauma.
Lisa used to receive a stipend from the government to care for her mother, but now doctors have deemed Linda fit to live on her own, leaving her daughter without a paycheck. After months of searching, Linda is hoping the sign will change her daughter’s job fortune.
“I’m offering $500 cash the minute she gets hired for $15 or more as an executive assistant or an office job,” she told CBS Los Angeles.
Lisa’s struggle to find work isn’t unique among members of her generation. After major job losses sustained during the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for those 24 to 35 still stands at 7.7 percent as of January.
As a result, parents like Linda have gone to extreme lengths to help their children find work, with some even offering companies cash just to take their kids on as unpaid interns.