Oh, those lazy days of summer. Sleeping in until noon. Laying on the couch watching TV. Surfing the net. Playing video games. What a life!
Those days are gone now for the Boy. He started his first job last night. He’ll be spending at least some of his days (or more likely evenings) dipping ice cream cones and whipping up shakes.
The Boy’s been old enough to get a job since just before school started this year. But, he’s been resistant to the idea. “Why do I have to get a job? You always say school is my job.” And it is. Top priority = education.
The Boy had a goal to really focus on his school work and GPA this year. He was totally successful at that - breaking the 4.0 barrier both semesters. He’s boosted his GPA to a point where a similar performance next year will have him graduating with honors. That plus a great ACT score in a couple weeks should score him a great scholarship.
But as the school year wound to a close, suggestions that he get a job turned into demands. There’s no reason he can’t work during the summer.
Part of the problem with the Boy, and with April who didn’t get a job until just before her 17th birthday, is the crowd they hang with. Almost none of their friends are required to work by their parents and so they don’t.
The parents see no value in their teens having a job. They provide everything the teen needs…clothing, a car, gas money, paid insurance, cell phone minutes, and spending money for activities and outings with friends. Why would the kid need or want a job?
I read an article recently that said this generation of coddled children are just “not into the whole job thing.” Some of that is normal teenage laziness but a lot of the blame, IMO, lays at the feet of the parents.
In previous generations, children often had to work to help the family make ends meet. Or they worked to be able to afford things like designer clothes, cars, and the like. I’m glad that my kids don’t have to work to help with household expenses. We are happy to provide them with all of the things they need and most of the things they want. But there are life lessons they need to learn that we can’t teach them.
Teens need to learn to have a good work ethic. How to get and keep a job. That you have to work for the things that you want in life. That we’re not going to support them forever.
The Boy has learned a lot already just by going through the process of getting a job. How to fill out applications. How to dress for interviews. What an interview is like - and what not to say and do in an interview. How important it is to follow up after applying for a job. He made some mistakes and learned how disappointing it is to apply for a job and not get it. Lessons he can afford to learn now because his survival doesn’t depend on it.
Hopefully, the Boy will go to college and eventually have a successful career that doesn’t involve burgers and the minimum wage. But this summer he’ll be learning more than burger flipping skills, and those lessons will be valuable in whatever career he chooses.
Plus we’ll get a discount on ice cream and dairy products!
Edited@1:32pm:Â I’ve received a number of concerned phone calls from people worried that I may have made my son stand naked on a street corner begging for change in order to fund his internet and gaming habits. Although he would do it, if that was the only way to get online, I photo-shopped that picture - the Boy’s head with another dude’s pasty-white-naked-sign-holding-body. Please do not call Children’s Services on my ass!
3