Should You Encourage Your Teenager to Get a Job?

Your teenager is about to turn 16. Reaching that magic age when most employers will consider hiring an employee. Your teenager may also be getting a driver’s license around the same time. Since you probably do not want to provide gas and spending money for your child’s new found freedom, should your teenager get a job?

Some parents feel that children should enjoy their childhood for as long as possible. That usually means until graduation, which also allows the teenager more time to focus on sports and hopefully studies. The other rationale is that in order to prepare our teenagers for independent adult living they should get a job.

Having a job while attending high school, allows your teen to learn time and money management. Mistakes can be made while they still have a parental cushion and hopefully not repeat the mistakes in adulthood. If your teenager is fired, you still pay the bills and provide some funds until another job can be found.

We chose to allow our teenagers to get jobs, four so far. Originally, we were concerned about the work ethic help by two of our daughters. They were adopted at 15 and 9 and hadn’t had a great example set for them prior to joining our family. We also did not have money saved up to purchase a vehicle for the one who was nearly 16. We hadn’t planned to adopt a teenager. Therefore, we allowed her, and our son who was the same age to get jobs at the same fast food restaurant. That way I could make one trip to drop them off at work and pick them back up.

We insisted that each of our teenagers put half of every paycheck into their savings accounts. They were told that the money was to be saved to purchase an automobile and for college. Sure, they wanted to spend their entire paycheck. On important things like CDs, jewelry, pop, and fast food, but they saved half. So far, each one has been able to maintain their first job until after graduation. Each has purchased suitable transportation with their money. They also paid for all of their own gas and reimbursed us for part of the car insurance. Today, each of them continues to maintain gainful employment. The positive outcomes of teen employment include a stronger sense of self worth and occupational achievement.

Were there problems with having our teenagers working at fast food restaurants? Well they tried smoking at work because it was so cool and their friends were doing it. No one in our house smokes. They had less time to spend on homework, which only seemed to affect the boy’s grades, not our daughters. A survey I found indicated that working teens were more likely to be depressed although we have not seen that. The survey also indicated that they were more likely to engage in substance abuse and spend less time with their parents.

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by Julia Fuller