Reply to Goal as a parent for DC to never work non-prof jobs?

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Reply to "Goal as a parent for DC to never work non-prof jobs?"

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[quote=Anonymous]This is a good topic for exploration.  There are a lot of issues bound up into into one question.

The biggest  is:  is it virtuous/character building to work hard for low pay at a job that doesn't develop skills you will need for post-college employment?

A responsible, pleasant kid already possesses certain skills that can be further developed by working a customer-facing job.  But they start with some skills already.  I would say that the worse the job/more unhappy the customers, the more skill-building it is.  But nobody really wants their kid to have a job with miserable working conditions.

Regarding the value of earning one's own money, there is a definite financial and logistical cost to making sure a teen is employable. Car access, car insurance, loss of control over vacation schedules, interference with study periods are the main factors.

My DH was from a low-income family in a poor area.  His first job for pay was in 8th grade.  I am from a higher-end middle class, educated family.  My first paying job was after freshman year of college.  Both of us earned relatively little money for our summer job efforts due to labor market conditions.  My husband needed the money.  I did not.

We've sort of averaged our thinking.  Our oldest did two mildly credible volunteer internships this summer so he has work experience for his resume.  What he does from now on is his choice.  We would support him doing more volunteer work or getting a paid job.

I believe that work experience is good for teens and college students but I don't believe committing to a dumb job for little financial gain is inherently virtuous and character-building.

A hard, but not dangerous, job for good pay makes sense.

A white-collar volunteer job that lets you explore a career path is also fine.

A passion project that doesn't pay is also fine.

We talk to our kids a lot about money.  My older took a lot of crap from kids who had jobs to earn spending money while he focused on school and ECs like his parents.  But these kids had free cars, car insurance, and gas gifted by their parents.  My younger is very admiring of a kid who has a job because he needs one.  We are not sure whether younger will seek out a job.  But we have explained the cost and logistics offsets.[/quote]

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