Another Topic On Kids & Work

Discussion in 'Education & Learning' started by Janice Martin, Jan 1, 2017.

  1. (This is slightly different from Ken's subject, so I thought I'd start a different thread)- How common is this, is it mainly regional, what's your opinion, etc.:

    Not only do many parents these days expect their high schoolers to have jobs, they expect them to pay rent, too- to live in their own families' homes.
    I think it ranges from ridiculous to flat-out awful.
    Not only are parents supposed to support their underage kids, it takes away a kid's role of 'family member' and reduces them to nothing but boarders.

    I think there are a lot of negativities connected to kids working in the first place, but I also believe if a high school kid has a job the general idea is he/she should put some percentage of each paycheck in the bank- to put toward college, save up to buy a car, or just the future in general- and the remainder of what the kid earns belongs to the kid for whatever little extras he or she might want.

    Opinions?
     
    #1
  2. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Yep, I think when the youngster starts employment full time, then they contribute to the household
    Part time working ? see nothing wrong with that, gives them experience before the real thing occurs
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I wasn't aware that this was a thing. What I see are people who are still living rent-free, and often obligation-free, in their parents' home while they are in their mid- to late-twenties.
     
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  4. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    I have never heard of a parent making their high schooler pay rent either and that would be wrong to me too. But I do not see anything wrong with them having a part time job while they are in high school. I think it is good experience for the real world they will soon be entering into and it also gives them a chance to learn for theirselves how far their money will go if they aren't careful with it.

    I worked part time all through high school and it helped me buy some extras that my parents could not afford, etc. and gave me confidence and experience to face real life out of high school. My daughters' all had part time jobs while in high school too. I would have never charged them rent but they did help pay their car insurance.
     
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  5. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    IMO, working teenagers owe no monetary recompense to their parents, even while under the same roof, so long as they continue to be students of acceptable schools furthering their educations. It's mighty hard physically and mentally to work and attend school both at the same time. I KNOW.
    Frank.
     
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  6. Orlando Ohare

    Orlando Ohare Veteran Member
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    I completely agree Janice.. kids should be taught to be independent but at the same time shouldn't be put under too much stress due to which they start acting like more than their age!
     
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  7. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    I had three part-time jobs during my high school years. I did get a weekly allowance from my step-parents, but all of it was put into a Christmas Savings at our bank. I never seen a penny of it until time to buy Christmas gifts for family. Except for the last part-time job, when I was a Senior, the money I earned was put into a Savings Acct. to buy school clothes with. The last part-time job, working at a "high-end" restaurant in Ft. Wayne, I was able to keep all the money and used it to buy a car, auto insurance, gas and go with school mates to cruise a McDonald's Drive-In Restaurant.

    I never had to pay rent, but that money I earned in my Sophomore and Junior years went for school clothes, books, etc. One thing I knew for sure, I wasn't going to college right away and the Draft would be right there to get me if I didn't enlist in another Service. Just before high school graduation, I quit the restaurant job and got a job working at a Truck Stop. A few days after graduation, I moved out and into the YMCA Hotel in downtown Ft. Wayne and started the job at the Truck Stop. Two weeks later, my Navy Recruiter called me and said "you're going next week".

    But, what I totally understand is what Ken stated above.
     
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  8. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I have no problem with parents allowing their kids to remain at home while they are in college, or while they are working and saving money for college, or for a home, or anything else that will give them a better start at life, as long as they are working at something and their parents can afford it. Our children don't quit being our children at a magical age of eighteen, or twenty-one, or any other age.

    But that's not always the case. We had a lady who would clean house for us a couple of times a week, who was getting by cleaning houses and doing other odd jobs, while her two grown sons ate up everything she earned, and spent their own money on drugs. I think there is altogether too much of that.

    Reuters published a study on the people who were taking part in the Occupy protests a few years ago, who are pretty much the same people who have been involved in the anti-Trump stuff today, and they found that nearly half of them were unemployed and still living with their parents. People with too much time on their hands can be a problem.
     
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  9. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Cody Fousnaugh
    I'll bet the "high-end" restaurant was one of Hall's, possibly the Gas House downtown. And the truck stop? Fortmeyers, no doubt. There was an "Old Fortmeyers", and a "New Fortmeyers", the latter being open in 1970, while I worked for Dana in Churubusco, staying nights at the Key Largo Inn.
    Frank
     
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  10. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Yes! Hall's Gashouse Restaurant downtown and the old Fortmeyers Truck Stop next to 33.

    Wow, since leaving the farm/'Busco/Ft. Wayne for the Navy in June '68 and some Navy Leaves back, you are only the second person I've talked to that knows the area. When I worked in EMS in Southern California in the mid 70's, I did pick up a lady that graduated from the same high school I did. But, she graduated 10 years before I did. She was able to talk to me in the back of our unit and it was amazing to me that she knew some of the same people I did.
     
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  11. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Cody Fousnaugh
    North of "Busco there were many lakes. My wife was born in a small clinic in Tri-Lakes, then grew up on a lake with her folks called Round L. about 10 miles or so out of Busco. Shriner L. had a 5-acre sized island in the middle of it. My friend and co-worker at Dana bought that island, with intention of building a house on it. He balked after learning no concrete supplier would agree to deliver Ready-mix to the island when the lake was frozen over!

    Since the OP is about kids working, my wife worked at a Scott's Supermarket while in H.S., and after, following her first marriage, a 1-year stint in Alaska in the Army with her husband. She flew alone, first time in a plane, to Seattle, then on to Fairbanks. She had the fearlessness of youth!
    Frank
     
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  12. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    There were a number of lakes in the Angola area. One of the most popular summer destination for high school and college kids was Lake James. It was definitely a "party Lake" in the summer. That kind of summer was for the city kids, not so much for farm kids, like me.

    My Uncle had a ski boat and lived in Cedarville. When I got to spend the weekend with my cousins, he would take all of us to Cedarville Reservoir for boating, swimming and some water skiing.

    Yes, now back to the OP.
     
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  13. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Hello @Orlando Ohare and welcome to the SeniorsOnly Club.
    I placed a "like" on your reply because I do respect your thought process. Ideologically, if the world were a good place to grow up I could even agree on every aspect of your observations.

    While I realize that some of the "old ways" cannot be adhered to in this more uh.....enlightened age, there is something great to be said about the "from father to son" technique of raising children.
    It was: Learn the ABC's in school, but learn life from your parents. Personally, I was never taught to play but learned that even what was deemed play by others was a task to be completed and to be completed well for me.
    There was no room for I can'ts unless the task was tried numerous times, and certainly there was no room for I will not for that was a pre-excuse for I can not.

    Though that might seem rather harsh, if a child is raised to know what will be expected of them and given goals that can only be reached by the very tips of their fingers with work then achieving adult goals will come much easier.
    While I do agree that when a teen hits 18, it isn't necessarily the hallmark by which leaving home is a precedent but it should be a time when goals have been set and the trial of an adult life begins.
    If the parents haven't instilled a work and educational work ethic at a very early age in a childs life then meeting tough goals at later stages in life will be improbable if not impossible.
     
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