Is My Teen Ready for a Job?

There are more "How To" articles in this day and age than ever before, everyone seems to be asking the age old question. "How to know if your teen is ready for a job?" is just one of many questions parents will find themselves asking. There is no clear definitive answer to that question. No one is really ready for that first job, yet we all managed to go through the process and come out unscathed, just as our children will.

Your teen's maturity can be an indicator on whether it is something worth contemplating but then again having a job can help to mature a teen. There is no better way to learn than through experience and the school of hard knocks. School performance is another indicator, since they must do the work indicated there but for no payment of cash. However, money can be the reason why a teen wants a job in the first place.

When you sit back and look at why the teen is looking for a job and the age that they are, a parent has to look also at the teen themself. Some teens need that incentive of a job and money in order to push harder in other areas of their life, others are looking for a way to earn pocket money, and still others are trying to grow up just a little too fast. We have taught our children to grow up all too fast in this society and getting a job is part of what they have already learned. Far too many children whether out of necessity or not have been latch key kids or after school program children because both parents in the household are holding down jobs and can not be at home. The teen has been through this scenario and they feel this is a way of life that they must live up to as well.

If you take out those factors and just look at the teen and their motivation for wanting a job a parent can soon figure out if that teen is ready for a job and whether they as the parent are ready to assume the responsibility of their teen getting a job. My teen has wanted a job for a while now and our recommendation for him to not work went through his ears faster than a speeding bullet. Money was his only motivation and no matter what we tried to say it just was ignored. Yes, we could have put our foot down and said the proverbial "NO" but that would only elict anger and resentment. Instead I took the route of helping him find a job, filling out the applications, going to countless interviews, the physical for employment and working papers, to get him ready for that first real, money paying job. Getting paid to cut the grass, raking leaves and shoveling snow were just not enough to sustain his craving for ready available cash; he had to have that first job away from mom and dad.

After all the interviews, some good and some complete flops, he decided on his own that work could wait and being a kid was still something he wanted to do. The following month he decided to try out for the school bowling team and told me that had he taken a job he would not be able to do that. I feel he took a giant step forward on his way to adulthood.

Sometimes as a parent we have to let our children whether very young or teenagers, spread their wings a little further. If they are not ready to fly we are still close by to lend a hand but when they are truly ready to take flight they will have spread them enough and tested them so their flight will be truly uplifting.