Guest Author: Shanna Laub

The day I turned sixteen, I told my dad I wanted a job working in the coffee shop up the street. My friends worked there, and it seemed like they had a lot of fun – plus, they were making much more money working than I was doing chores.

Similar reasons – along with hundreds of others – motivate other teens to find an after-school or summer job to take up their time. Teens fifteen and older have worked throughout nearly every generation. Your parents worked when they were young; you might have worked while in high school; and now your kids may be expressing interest in working in retail or perhaps at McDonald’s to earn some extra money; whether it be for the chance to make new friends, taste adulthood, or in many cases, to help out the family in these hard economic times.

Surprisingly, teen employment has been on the decline over last ten years. While some suggest kids are becoming more interested in their studies than making money on the side; others believe that the rising minimum wage is attracting older workers to lower-level jobs and shutting doors for teens, nationwide. Those that are working, however, often feel pressure from their parents to get and keep a job during their teen years for a multitude of reasons; and the question of whether teens should work at all arises more often than not.

Summer Jobs and Part-Time Work

In the summer, most teens would rather be hanging out with friends or going on dates; however, many parents aren’t interested in excuses, because they had it worse in their day.

“‘You need to find a job.’ ‘But I have sports.’ Well I had sports too and I still had a job,” comments Dr. Kevin Berry, a TMJ dentist in Denver, Colorado, who worked on a farm during his summer days as a teen. “We lived in the country, but I worked with the farmers with cantaloupes and watermelons, hoeing the weeds, picking the oats, baling hay, that’s what I did during my sophomore and junior year summers. I was sixteen. I worked seven days a week all summer long from four thirty in the morning to two in the afternoon. I had two days off the entire summer.”

Dr. Berry used his summers on the farm to help out with the crop dusting business.

“I drove the truck that led the plane while it was flying, and the pilot would use me as a reference point,” he says. “As soon as he started coming I’d move to the next one, circle back, and he’d pass over me. I scouted the fields to make sure there weren’t any wires or other dangerous materials in the way.”

Dr. Berry, like many of us, was told to get a job while going to school despite any other activities he participated in. Parents often ask their teens to find a job to teach them the more fundamental lessons of adult life. Working a part-time job teaches youngsters about being punctual; about how to conduct themselves in an interview; how to create a resume; and how to budget their money properly. They may learn about bill-paying, such as for vehicle insurance, and may also come to understand the importance of a savings account. This gives them an advantage over others their age who have never worked and may be less prepared for life on their own.

Work, School, Sports and Chores Lead to Exhaustion

It is possible for your teen to be overworked and fatigued from their jobs and daily activities, especially if their summer job turned into a part-time job during the school year. This is even more an issue if your teen is the “breadwinner” and is trying to take care of the family while working and going to school. Many teens will find their GPAs slipping and their social lives becoming non-existent if they constantly work.

Students shouldn’t be dissuaded from seeking part-time jobs; however they must also learn where their stress threshold is and how to walk the line before their educations fall by the wayside. If teens truly want to find a job – or parents are making the push for their teen to learn about adult life – it is important to maintain some amount of time for study and personal activities. Just like adults, teens need time to blow off steam after a hard day at school and work. If teens only work between 12 to 20 hours a week at their part-time job, they will likely still have decent grades and be learning those valuable life lessons.

Shanna Laub writes for Off-Topic Media. Special thanks to Dr. Kevin Berry for taking time to speak with us. Dr. Berry can be reached at his TMJ dentist office in Colorado at:

TMJ Therapy and Sleep Center of Colorado
8200 S Quebec Street, A14
Centennial, Colorado, 80112
303-800-7007

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