<p>Due to distance and allergies, my mother is forcing me to quit volunteering at the animal shelter. In place of that, she wants me to volunteer at her dialysis center but I am worried if volunteering at a place where your parent works would be viewed negatively. Can anyone give me their thoughts?</p>
<p>I think that if you are volunteering in your community, it looks fine no matter where it is. But if you are that worried about it, you could always look at other options in your community. I would look elsewhere first, but if you can’t find anything, at least you’ll be volunteering somewhere.</p>
<p>You’re seriously overthinking this. Imagine the kid who has to work at the family store or restaurant 30 hours a week. No outside volunteering hours. Should a college look at that negatively?</p>
<p>Where you volunteer is not the issue – it’s whether or not you use your time constructively and/or have any community focus.</p>
<p>Okay, I don’t think you should be doing any community service in the first place. If you are worried about admissions officers would think of you negatively for doing community service; you should ■■■■. You are just like a lot of people in this world; call me cynical. You only do things that would benefit YOU not the others around you. That is not what community service is.
“He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.” -Lao Tzu</p>
<p>Alright, thanks for the advice and the insight.</p>
<p>@davidthefat
Volunteering at my mother’s dialysis center isn’t really to benefit me but my mother. I would rather stay in the animal shelter where I love spending my time. However, the fact that it’s about thirty minutes away from home and my eczema acts up after wards stresses my single mother out. She has a critical health condition which, of course, stress only worsens. So, yes, I suppose I am selfish for still wanting to help my community without raising my mother’s blood pressure. I am only wondering if volunteering where she works would be viewed negatively - not whether I should do it or not. I am sorry if I gave off that impression but is also rude for you to assume that way.</p>