teenagers and employment

[Joeydego]

Did you have a job as a teen? How privileged was your family? Does your teenager work or did your kids have jobs as teens and what were they?

I've been employed one way or the other since the age of 11. Single mom household, very poor. At 11 moved to asshole dad household which became dirt poor out of looserism. Grew up on food stamps. As a preteen/teen, I walked dogs, made my own sunday paper route and ran errands for the privileged. I stocked shelves, washed dishes and at 14 worked in a pizzeria until the age of 17. I developed a nasty drug habit there. At 17 moved back with my mom and took a job at A&P. Been employed since.

My 13 year old has no job.

I cant say I know a single teen with a job.

 

[Laggspike]

Im 26 and been unemployed for 5-ish years..

Currently doing a education that is going very well!

So I am hoping for the better.. I want a damn drumkit and a bass!

 

[elephantrider]

my son ( now 19 in college ) worked some odd job or another
from the time he was 16. before that he was doing various
chores around the house for small bucks. he has a part time
job even now, when in college with a 3.8gpa. i didn't want to
raise a lazy kid, so i instilled the same thing my asshole dad
instilled in me. nothing is free.

my 11 year old is the same. gets a small allowance for dishes,
trash, etc... he'll have a part time job as well once he gets
old enough.

i worked at a blue bell distribution center through high school
and loved the extra cash i had. my parents weren't poor, but
they made that up on how tight wadded they were, which isn't
a bad thing at all.

too many free rides these days. way too many.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

I started working at 12 doing auto body detail work. Bondo,..painting,..a whole lot of sanding.


Teens today working?

idk,...I see a lot of adults doing the jobs kids use to get.

...that kinda says something about the way things are.


last I read the unemployment rate for Millennials is pretty high. Like 50% or something.

Lots of people with degrees flipping burgers or just unable to find work.

and things are different in different areas. Some places have jobs,..others don't.


Then a lot of people aren't retiring,..so they're holding onto their jobs longer meaning other people can't move up to their position.

It's a complicated issue.

Things aren't really what they seem.



...unless you work for the Govt or the local Govt,..things are tough right now.

 

[Bytor1958]

I got my first job on my 16th Birthday. I've been working for the last 41 years. I had to work for everything I have and nothing was ever given to me. I'm planning 15 more years my house will be paid for by then and retire. 72 seems so far away but also so close.

 

[Nick-O]

Had a similar conversation last week. Seems it is on the minds of many adults looking back or trying to figure out what is different....besides everything.
Worked since I was 12, I think I mowed lawns even younger. No choice. All good. But I know of no teenagers working but one, collecting shopping carts at Bi-Lo.
Agree with Mal, I see adults doing the work we did as young folks.

 

[Tim Fezziwig]

16-18=dishwasher. BEST JOB EVER! I worked at at a seafood place. I stole lobsters and ate them while sitting on the toilet. I was drunk and+ all day long. I worked in Trenton NJ. Mean streets. I used to walk several blocks before I had to drive home to sober up. Waitresses would stick their tongues in my ear. I was "fried" after my stint. Food industry got me ready for R+R. Those people burn the candle down.

 

[bildozr]

Grandparents owned a restaurant. Worked in it as soon as I could legally work until I moved away for school.

Did I have to work? No my Dad is a physician. Did my Dad give me money for things if I wanted to go out? Rarely. He paid my car insurance and gave me the keys to his old car when he got a new one.

That's about it.

 

[Olds442]

Both of my teens work.

College students with summer jobs.

Both my gal's teens work as well. Lifeguard, shopping cart fetcher, etc.

You know lazy ass'd teens Joey. Place shoe up teen's ass more often. ;-)

 

[TheX]

I worked, and joined the military as early as I could. I was in boot camp days after turning 17.

Lazy, entitled people piss me off.

 

[sk8rat]

my parents were young and broke at first. then my dad started his own business that took off.

I worked with him probably starting from around age ten in the summers and sometimes in the fall. if I wanted something I had to pay it off by working with him. he definitely over paid me but he was trying to teach me something more than actually make me work.

once I hit 15 things started to fall apart and I was relatively cut off from my parents buying me anything and I had to scrimp and save, sell things ect... to get what I wanted.

I didn't get a real job until my late teens. I struggled in school (because of being farsighted and not having glasses) so I didn't need another thing on my plate. at 17 I moved out and went to a military academy, after that I moved back home and finished high school.

if your kid is doing good in school then don't sweat it. they are holding up their part of the deal. I understand wanting you kid to learn about work early but I have seem a lot of kids burn out because their parents forced them to do so many things at once. especially around the age of 13. that is really the prime of their childhood.

also judging by your post, you still seem relatively bitter about your childhood situation. I don't think you want them to grow up and feel the same way.

how's that saying go? parents want their kids to have it better than they did when they were growing up...something like that.

also on sunday I saw two kids riding around on bikes throwing out news papers, cant remember the last time I saw that

 

[Jeremiah]

Aside from a 6 month stint on unemployment when I got laid off in my early 30's, I've been working since I was 16. I had a paper route before that, but come on...that isn't really working. My parents did OK. It wasn't that they wouldn't give me things, it was more that I didn't want to ask for things I could get by earning on my own.

 

[Freddy G]

I grew up wanting for nothing. My parents were both very generous and liberal.
However, I was always self driven to explore my interests and it seems that money just happened because of that. I never thought about income...it was always just there.

 

[PeteK]

I grew up middle class. But my parents had a "sink or swim" parenting style. No gimmies. My first job was working summers for my friend's dad, moving sheets of drywall from the truck to the job site. 13 years old at the time and got paid cash.

My first real job with a paycheck, I was 15 and worked at Taco Bell. Minimum wage at the time was $4.25. Honestly, I think I did better moving drywall. I worked there for 6-8 months. Felt like a lot of work for not a lot of pay so I seeked employment elsewhere.

Got a job at a truck wash that started at $9.50/hour plus bonus pay for daily sales. I was 17 at that time. Usually averaged around $13-14/hour. I worked there for the remainder of my high school years.

A few odd jobs post high school that paid around the same. Around $15/hour. But in 2002 is when things started to work out for me. I took a test for a union apprenticeship and ended up getting hired.

 

[James R]

I also came from a poor single parent household.
If I wanted money, I worked for it.
By 15 I was helping to pay bills and rent by working two part time jobs and going to school full time.

Honestly?
I wouldn't change my upbringing even if I could.
It gave me a strong work ethic and a moral compass that I couldn't turn off if I tried.

 

[Digger]

When I was 14 I used to work in a service station nights over the weekend. That was when we still did tyres, oil & water. I was on my own there until about 10pm.

School holidays i used to ride my pushbike about 15 kilometres each way to work for a company that did SCUBA tank hydrostatic testing.

I did that plus helped make up SCUBA sets made out of RAAF surplus oxygen tanks....the manager gave me my first SCUBA set because of the work.

We have 5 kids and they have always worked, no bludgers there!

 

[jppage25]

teenagers and employment? I didn't know those words went together

 

[LtDave32]

Did you have a job as a teen? How privileged was your family? Does your teenager work or did your kids have jobs as teens and what were they?

I've been employed one way or the other since the age of 11. Single mom household, very poor. At 11 moved to asshole dad household which became dirt poor out of looserism. Grew up on food stamps. As a preteen/teen, I walked dogs, made my own sunday paper route and ran errands for the privileged. I stocked shelves, washed dishes and at 14 worked in a pizzeria until the age of 17. I developed a nasty drug habit there. At 17 moved back with my mom and took a job at A&P. Been employed since.

My 13 year old has no job.

I cant say I know a single teen with a job.

I started at 12 with a legit job (before that I had a paper route) at a bike shop, sweeping up and working my way up to putting bicycles together. I had to have my mother sign a work permit. Got my first Social Security card at age 12. After that I worked stocking shelves in a liquor store on weekends and after school. During high school years I worked during the summer at a garage as an apprentice mechanic.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

I have worked since I was 15. My first job was a dishwasher at a banquet hall. Me and about 10 others from my high school. We all worked hard, but lots of pot smoking and hooking up, too. I stayed in the restaurant biz until I graduated from high school.

 

[kevinpaul]

I wish that I was born on Labor Day so that I could have had a day off. I had work every day of my walking life. A news post boy in Ireland and then stable work cleaning poop and feeding horses, I hate those creatures. America was a gold mine for me, I learned machine work in a one man shop. I just started helping him, go pick up, carry heavy things and he paid me cash the first week. He did not know he hired me but I kept coming back. The piano player job in the whore house. There was always a way to make money and more than I needed some time.