I was having coffee with some friends last week when we started talking about why having a job as a teenager may be a really good thing. Of course, from a teens perspective, the extra cash is always nice. But as a parent, there’s nothing like a “real” job to teach kids a few life lessons. A week earlier, I had a phone interview with a freelance writer about teens and working. She asked if I thought having teens work was a…
Nathan had one of his friends over the other day. They were chatting about Christmas shopping. Apparently Valerie had most of her shopping done. Nathan – none. He’s not a big shopper. It has been my experience that girls are more apt to buy their friends Christmas gifts than boys…and enjoy the process. I see this in my nieces and in the daughters of my friends. Not so much with any of the boys. And as much as I don’t like generalizing,…
Nathan and Ryan received their second, and final, soccer reffing checks in the mail yesterday. “How much are you expecting?” I asked. “A lot,” was the answer I received from both. And a lot it was! Nathan’s check came to $210 and Ryan’s came in at $164. But as nice as those numbers are, if you are not keeping track of what it is you are owed, you run the risk of not getting paid for the time you worked. The only way the…
I had the pleasure of sitting in the passenger seat while Nathan drove me and Ryan into Sacramento. We were headed for a tour of the Capitol as something to do while John’s parents were visiting. Since we sold the Suburban last year, taking two cars has come up a number of times. I noticed how smoothly Nathan accelerated each time the light turned green. So smooth I had to look out the window to make sure we were actually…
I was talking to Nathan yesterday as he headed off to ref five soccer games. Reffing soccer is good money. Depending on how many other refs are involved in the game (there can be up to three), he could easily make $100. That’s a lot of gas and burger money for a teenager. “I was thinking about which was worse,” Nathan started. “Running a 3K race or reffing a soccer game.” I wasn’t surprised that either of those choices was…