This isn't a job that I have ever held, but this is the closest place for the observations that I am going to make. As you know, I work in web directories. In doing so, I often add web sites for funeral homes since most of them have web sites. Among the information that I add to the description, sometimes, is how long the funeral home has been in business, so I will click in to the "history" or "about" pages. Several times, I will read a history about how the owner of the funeral home had wanted to be in the funeral home business since he was a young child, and I can't help but think that there must be something wrong with a young child who wants to be an undertaker when he grows up. One funeral home even related that the founder of the business had volunteered in another funeral home since he was twelve. I understand that it is a necessary profession, but am I alone in thinking that there is something wrong with a kid who wants to embalm dead bodies when he grows up or who can't even wait until he grows up to start embalming corpses?
Oh, you are absolutely not alone, @Ken Anderson . I have never in my life understood how anyone could do it and "enjoy" the profession whether or not they wanted to do it as a kid... and *that* I can't even imagine. It's (at least in my own mind) rather bizarre.
Not something I would want to do. In grade school I was friends with the daughter of the owner of the biggest funeral home in our town. I never went to her house but she was the richest girl in school so business was good! She would come to school in a limo. Her name was Mary Dale DeBor. I just looked it up and it's still there. http://www.deborfuneralhome.com
I guess I can see it if you are the child of a funeral home owner. Then, I would imagine you grow up thinking that this sort of thing is normal, and of course you may be inheriting a business that will support you the rest of your life. I can understand it too, if that is the only work that someone can get as an adult because work is work, and they might come to accept it as just another job. I can't understand a child considering that to be his goal in life otherwise, though.
When I was 18 years old I became engaged to a young man I had known all through High School...he finished a year ahead of me. One day he told me he was going back to Houston, TX which was where his parents lived...but he told me the reason he was going back was to go to Mortician's School over there. I thought about being married to a Mortician for two days...then on the third day I broke our engagement! While I was on vacation at the beach and staying with my sister, she told me that her oldest son's girl friend was going to school to become a Mortician...she even sent my sister pictures of the embalming room, coffins, etc. I saw her picture and she is cute and looks perfectly normal. I'm sure there is money in this profession since death comes to all of us sooner or later and someone has to take care of the things that go along with this. I know there are beauticians and comestologists who do the hair and makeup for funeral homes too. I don't think I could ever do something like that...I couldn't even consider marrying someone who was going to do that. I am glad there are people that feel called to this profession because I don't know what we would do without them.
Well... I'm sitting here wondering if this is crass to say but it's true, so I will. It *is* one of the few jobs that offers rather strong job security. Maybe that's it? I mean, it's not like being a real estate agent if a long-time bubble is coming down the pike... they always have business. (Uh... okay, quit while you're ahead, Mari!)
But do children think like that? At the age of twelve, I think most kids are looking for a job that sounds like it might be fun, exciting, or glamorous.
http://www.healthcare-salaries.com/allied-health-professionals/mortician-salary Well according to this article...Mortician's definitely don't go into this profession for the high salary.
http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Want-To-Be-A-Mortician/750658 @Ken Anderson It took a little time to find...but here's a story of a kid who actually wanted to grow up and be a Mortician...and he did.
I don't know Ken, I have a 17 year old relative going into the business. He is a christian and seems like a nice kid. I assume he's wanting to help people. I know we have a retired funeral director on this forum so maybe they will have some thoughts on the subject.
My observations were purely that it seemed strange to me that a twelve year-old would have being a funeral director as his goal in life unless, of course, his father was a funeral director. A lot of people wouldn't like working as a paramedic either, since it sometimes involves blood and gore, vomit, and dead people. As adults, we often make such decisions based on practical matters having to do with available jobs, pay, security, etc. Kids, however, usually base their life goals on things that are fun and exciting, or on jobs that adults they admire have.
A type of mental illness known as Necrophilia, or Necromania, exists, in which unusual or abnormal desire is present to associate with the dead. Definitions vary, but some include sexual desire, while others do not. Knowing that such an unusual "interest" exists, what's to say it might not show up fairly early in life, say, age 12, when comprehension of death and it's implications are fairly well understood? Frank