Summer Work or Not to Work During Summers

1. 84

   gmwilliamsposted 12 years ago

   The issue of summer jobs for young people and their parents is a contentious and heated issue.   While some parents strongly contend that summer jobs are great for buidling experience and a work ethic, others contend that summers are to be enjoyed and that summer jobs do not count towards future work experience nor build a work ethic.   What are your thoughts regarding summer jobs for young people?

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   1. 82

      Millionaire Tipsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I think summer jobs are very helpful. Besides providing spending money, they teach money management, time management, the importance of showing up to work every day, learning to interact with coworkers and bosses, etc. Learning these skills during a summer job (therefore short term) where there are fewer repercussions is better than having to learn them all when trying to find full time permanent employment.
      
      People should be able to enjoy their summers, and I think that doing so with limited time makes you appreciate them more than having long stretches of time without interruption.  Besides, it is very difficult to adjust to having all this time to do as you please to rush into a full time job, especially if it is a permanent one that has limited vacation days.

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      1. 84

         gmwilliamsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Millionaire Tips, great answer.    I totally concur with you.

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2. 76

   wildernessposted 12 years ago

   People will vary a great deal in their response to life's challenges, but it general a parent has two basic choices in this matter.
   
   1.  Teach their children that the world is their oyster, that their wants and needs are supplied by someone else and they need put out little effort to gain those wants.  This is likely to produce a child that never grows up, lives with Mom and Dad for decade(s) after coming of age.  It produces a college grad tat has no idea of how to hold a job, that doesn't know enough to go to work every day, on time, and is competing with others that have already learned those kinds of things. 
   
   It is also far too likely to produce a child behind bars; excessive free time in young people too often results in appropriate behavior, behavior from people that have never learned they are responsible for their actions and lives.  By the time one is 65 years old most people have learned to handle free time, but children haven't.
   
   2.  Teach their children that work produces what they want, that they can only have what they earn themselves whether it be from a job somewhere or other effort.  Teach them a work ethic; that when they accept the responsibility of a job they need to accept that their time no longer belongs only to them.  Teach them that the "entitlement" philosophy is not acceptable - that the world does not owe them a living or anything else.
   
   I've raised two children, both of whom entered the workforce at 15.  They didn't work much at that age, maybe 1 or 2 days per week, but they learned from it and when they were ready to take on full time employment they hit the work scene running.  The days of being fired for not showing up, or showing up late every day, were gone - they already learned that lesson at a time when their food and lodging didn't depend on it.
   
   I've also seen far too many youngsters in my trade, just out of school, that have no concept of personal responsibility on the job.  They can't get there on time, they don't show at all some days and refuse to use their own tools and equipment.  Better to borrow from someone else as buying their own tools takes away from their beer money and that seems unacceptable.  Unfortunately, they are competing for that job with older, experienced workers that do understand these things and the inevitable result is that they are looking for work most of the time. 
   
   Kids absolutely need play time when young, but it is also the time to begin easing them into life's responsibilities.  That's the parent's task, after all; to teach their kids how to survive in the cold world, not to support them for a lifetime while they play.

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   1. 84

      gmwilliamsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Amen to you.   You are correct on both counts.    Young people need to be taught resonsibility and summer jobs teach that work ethic and responsibility.    You are on target saying that many young people do not have a discernible work ethic because EVERYTHING was done for them in their formative years.    When parents spoil children, they are in fact crippling them and giving them an entitlement mentality.

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      1. 76

         wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That's it; rather than fulfilling their duty to train their children it pleases parents to simply provide for them, unthinkingly crippling the child. 
         
         Understandable; everyone wants a happy child, enjoying life to the fullest, but the bottom line is that the child never grows up and the parent is the root cause.  We train our children that certain actions are unacceptable, why stop at training them that a lifetime of entitlements is also unacceptable?

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