Poll: After school jobs

[sadlebred]

It seems like a lot of kids/teens these days don't or aren't expected to get after school jobs. My parents made it known that we needed our own spending $$ and would be getting a job when we turned 16, which was the legal working age in my state growing up. I'm talking about working at a place like the ice cream shop, grocery store, retail, etc. Not babysitting or cutting the neighbor's grass.

Edited to say: Back in the day I started babysitting for a family with 3 young kids when I was in 6th grade. I sat nearly every Friday or Sat. night until the weekend before I turned 16.

[cherry1111]

I answered yes if I wanted spending money of my own but really it was if I wanted to drive a car I’d better figure out how to pay for it so I got a job. I baby sat enough for general spending money but even back in the late 90s it wasn’t enough for a car payment/gas/insurance/maintenance.

I ended up working retail through the rest of high school and they let me come back seasonally during Christmas and summer breaks from college.

[SwimDeep]

I wanted to get a job, but they wouldn't let me. But then I was commuting to college with my older brother and he insisted I should help pay for his gas and car insurance. So then I was required to get a job.

Fundie-evangelical upbringing. Which is why I picked "something else" 🥴

ETA: I got my GED and started college at 17. I got a job as a grocery cashier at 18.
Expectations were very different for my younger siblings.

[lust2hart]

I only had summer jobs. I worked because otherwise I would have been bored.

[CloudBee]

When I was old enough to get my work permit: I worked full time in the summer, part time after school, and took every babysitting job my mom sourced for me. She worked in a hospital and gave my name to all of the doctors.

It wasn't my choice. I needed to save for spending money, gas, insurance, and for the books I would need to purchase in cash once I went away to college.

ETA: I worked in a Mexican restaurant and a gift shop, and then moved onto cleaning hotel rooms.

[rosiebear]

My parents didn’t exactly “make me,” but it was the clear expectation and every one of my older siblings had done so. We also never had $$ for extras, so I wanted to earn some. Got my work permit and my first job (besides babysitting) at 15.

[fortnightlily]

Summer jobs, yes. School year jobs (aside from aforementioned babysitting, dog walking, etc.) no.

Those earnings were my spending money for the year. My parents did not make me pay for car insurance. Sometimes I paid for gas, sometimes they did.

[twinmomma]

I never worked after school because I was involved in activities that took up a lot of time. But during the winter I worked weekends at a ski area and during the summer I worked full time at a campground. That money generally lasted me in the "off seasons" when I didn't work and covered fun money and gas for my car.

[brooklyn]

My parents didn’t let me work during the school year. They wanted my focus to be on academics. They generally provided enough spending money that I didn’t have to work.

When I went away to college and had more expenses, I got a job at CVS and my dad yelled at me when he found out. 🙄

[supertrooper1]

I voted yes, I had to help my family, not for monetary reasons, but because I grew up on a small dairy farm and was expected to work on the farm from a young age. By 5, I was feeding calves. I was driving a tractor by age 7, and milking at around 12. In high school, we didn't have any outside employees, so it was only my mom, dad, myself, and younger brother working on the farm. I still managed to play sports in high school, but I still had to milk 60-100 cows when I got home from school and on weekend mornings.

[mrsukyankee]

No after school job - I played sport all 3 trimesters so there's no way I could have gotten one (I was hoping to get into uni using sport so it was important). I had a summer job from age 14. I did work a pt job when I was in uni while also playing D1 sport. It sucked.

[fernweh]

My parents required that we have something - either an extracurricular activity or a job. I had both. Primarily weekends more so than after school but I for some reason was real antsy to get a job.

[basilosaurus]

My job was student. But I made bank babysitting.

My parents actually tried to make me return money if they thought I was overpaid. Thankfully, no one accepted my return on $20 for 3 hours. Yeah, my dad was ridiculously cheap and applied 1985 prices to 1995 which was still cheap but kept gas in my car.

I did work during summers in college. Intern type stuff. In retrospect I would have been better served I think if I knew about w2 and service industry.

[loira]

No. I did end up working as an exercise rider and teaching the occasional lesson at my barn but this made me no money - my trainer just took it off our barn bill. My parents bought me clothes or whatever else I needed, and would give me money to go to coffee with friends, but honestly I had very little social life outside of my sport. Which was just as well because it was so expensive and I honestly cannot believe my parents supported it (we were very comfortable but by no means wealthy).

[cjcouple]

No, I wasn't required. I did however want a job and got one

My kids are not required either. I want them to enjoy school and their sports. I actually told my oldest I did not want him choosing work over his Senior year of sports. I will explain that to my youngest too at 16.

He got a job and works Sundays for spending money. it's a nice balance.

IMO they will be working for the next 45÷ years so...enjoy high school.

College? they'll be required to work part time.

[mommin]

Yes, my mom would only let me get a drivers license if I had a job and paid for insurance for both she and I and gas. This was 1997-1999 so insurance and gas were much cheaper but minimum wage was only $4.25 so I still have to work 20+ hrs a week.

DS1 got his first job during the middle of his junior year. We wanted him to get a summer job to start saving for his own fun and college expenses. He ended up doing a charter school program that allows him to do all of his classes at the junior college junior and senior year. This freed up his schedule a TON so he decided to start working as a lifeguard 14-20 hrs/wk during school and about 25-30 hrs/wk during summer.

We pay for pretty much everything, including gas, so he’s saved about $15k in 15 months and plans to buy himself a number of things for college.

[CurlyQ284]

I was not required but after the first NSYNC concert my mom said I didn't need to go again because I've already seen them, so I got a job at TCBY when I was 14 and went on to see them 8 more times 😂

Both of my SDs worked in high school and through college/training (SD22 graduates next month, SD21 was in firefighter training school, finished that and is now in paramedic school). DS has not had much interest/success with sports, he's only 11 but doesn't do extracurriculars so I'll make him get a job too unless something changes drastically and he somehow ends up being in sports practice 6 nights a week, which I highly doubt.

[eb777888]

I got a job because I wanted to work, not because my dad made me.

David really wants a job and I told him that if he can make it work with his busy, sporadic schedule then I'm all for it. He hasn't taken the initiative to actually LOOK for a job other than read the flyer I brought home from our grocery store looking for baggers, lol. I'm not going to be on him about it. If he wants it, he can go get it!

[sdlaura]

I wanted my own money, so I worked a lot. Probably too much.

My DD is 11 and SO excited to work. She has her first paid job this weekend as a junior umpire for her softball league. The league says kids should be 12 to do it, but DD emailed her case the commissioner about why she’s mature enough to do it at 11.

Our family is in a higher income bracket than I grew up in, so we buy DD most of the stuff she wants and give her spending money when she goes places, but she really wants to earn her own money, so that’s great.

[livinitup]

SS: I applied, interviewed, and got a job at the local Ice cream place at 16 yo without my parent’s permission. I biked there and figured it all out. Which was par for the course for Gen X.

My mom was mad. She didn’t want me working but I was looking at a boring summer and wanted something to do and my own money. I had already been babysitting regularly for a while. They both came around but I quit when school started to study and do extra curricular activities/sports. By the next spring she was helping me get certified for a life guard job at the town for big bucks.

[dexteroni]

All three of us got jobs as soon as we were 16. We weren’t made to, but we couldn’t wait to work. Man, what suckers. lol.

My mom’s friend owned a pretzel shop, so she did help us get our first jobs. But it was made clear to us that we had to keep our grades up in order to be allowed to work.

[bex1973]

If I wanted a car I had to work andpay for it. Started working at a restaurant Freshman year of HS and worked there all through HS and after my first year of college. I didn't work my first year of college but after that I've worked non stop. I had 3 jobs at one point in college.

[devonpow]

I wasn’t. During the school year I was too busy (plus had no access to a car) so didn’t do anything beyond babysitting. Summers I went out of state to stay with my dad.

DH worked from the time he was 15, but only in the summer. DS1 we required to get a summer job once he decided not to attend overnight camp anymore (last summer, when he was 16). Again it’s only summers though. The school year with school and sports there’s no time.

[bohemianmango]

I helped with my family’s business before college. I probably should’ve gotten another source of income since our family was struggling but I didn’t realize it at the time. I could have spent less time doing unpaid volunteer work.

I started working regularly during my frosh year of college to support myself and my sister. I was fortunate to have an on-campus job until I graduated that allowed me to work during the school year and on breaks.

[plutosmoon]

I was expected to work as soon as I could, I babysat starting around age 12, and got my first real job at Kmart the day after I turned 16.

I worked a lot, probably too much, by the time I took a break the last half of my senior year I was working 35 hours a week. I did a ton of activities after school and would be at school from 7:30-2:30, activities from 2:30-5ish and work from 5:30-10, every weekday, plus shifts on the weekends. My parents also expected As, it was a lot.

Once I had a job, I was expected to help by buying my own clothing, toiletries and gas. I was also expected to save my paychecks for college. I worked part time during the school year in college and probably an average of 50-60 hours a week during college summers, money was always tight when you are raised in a family with 6 kids.

I do not expect my DD to work until she is in college. Even then, I hope it will be minimal preferably only summers. Although, she does TA for her dance studio and she earns like $2/class for helping.

[jillybean222]

My kids are at this age now and parents seem to fall in two camps: 1) get a job or 2) school is your job.

My two teens work. I also have a 12 yo who doesn't have a job...yet!

[gretchenindisguise]

If we count babysitting, then I guess I had an after school job on weekends during the school year.

But otherwise, my parents actively discouraged us from working during the school year. School was our job.

Summers we worked because otherwise we'd be bored off our rockers and we wanted to have more money to spend than our parents wanted to give us.

[Nonny]

My parents were the "school is your job" types. My older siblings had jobs (sister worked fast food, brother did car detailing type work at our dad's job), but they were also a lot older than me, and by the time I was 16 it was discouraged for me.

I got an allowance, and I did little things here and there for money, like pet/house sitting, and my senior year I ran the student store during breaks at my high school (this was like a 20 minute a day job, and I remembered that we got paid in cash each week, but I can't remember how much it was, not a lot). 

I didn't get a "real" job with a W-2 until college.

[katfco]

It wasn't required but strongly encouraged. There wasn't a ton of money for clothes that weren't absolutely necessary, and nothing available for college.

[noodleoo]

Mar 22, 2024 16:04:05 GMT -5 lust2hart said:

I only had summer jobs. I worked because otherwise I would have been bored.

Same. And my parents didn’t tell me or make me so I clicked No on the poll. But I had older siblings with jobs so they didn’t really have to. My sister worked year around because she wanted the money. I only worked over the summer because I’m lazier. LOL