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.\u00a0 Of course, from a teens perspective, the extra cash is always nice.\u00a0 But as a parent, there’s nothing like a “real” job to teach kids a few life lessons.<\/p>\n
A week earlier, I had a phone interview with a freelance writer about teens and working.\u00a0 She asked if I thought\u00a0having teens work\u00a0was a good idea.\u00a0 As long as work doesn’t get in the way of school, I’m all for it.\u00a0 I like how having a part-time job can help teach kids time management.\u00a0 I also like the idea of teens having a “boss” that is not mom or dad.\u00a0 There tends to be a little more accountability that way.<\/p>\n
As I’m describing this to the writer, she throws in that she had recently talked with a child psychologist who said that teens who had jobs growing up\u00a0don’t do any better or worse\u00a0 in their “real job” as adults than teens who didn’t have the pleasure of working when they were younger.<\/p>\n
Hmmm.\u00a0 Without grilling her on the study the psychologist was referring to – what did he mean by didn’t do any better or worse<\/em> – I had to disagree slightly.\u00a0 It could very well be that time management and working hard comes readily to adults regardless of having a job as a teen.<\/p>\n But there is absolutely nothing like having to earn and\u00a0then manage\u00a0your own money as a teen.\u00a0 Living within your means,\u00a0setting priorities, learning how to save, budgeting, and my favorite…making money mistakes –\u00a0all learned before leaving the comfort of home.\u00a0 Priceless.<\/p>\n Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that.\u00a0 Parents need to be involved in helping their teens take advantage of these lessons.\u00a0 And part of that is not bailing out their teens when they make mistakes.\u00a0 A difficult thing for a lot of parents.<\/p>\n But\u00a0as I was chatting that morning with my girlfriends, it was apparent that there was one more really important lesson that I had forgotten about.\u00a0 The lesson that minimum wage is not going to provide our kids with the lifestyle they expect to live as adults.\u00a0 And that lesson is worth every newspaper they throw, every dish they wash, every burger they flip…as teenagers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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.\u00a0 Of course, from a teens perspective, the extra cash is always nice.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 She asked if I thought\u00a0having teens work\u00a0was a…<\/p>\n