<p>Well, I think my 14 year old son is getting his secret wish – no summer job.</p>
<p>Most of the big players around us (Sesame Place, retail stores) all have a min age of 15. We (well I) was hoping he could work at the local ice cream stand, but they told son today that they aren’t hiring this year. They own 2 stands & they don’t think they can afford to open one this year.</p>
<p>So it is looking like one more summer of freedom for him & Mom paying for at least one summer camp.</p>
<p>Babysitting? Dog walking? Feeding cats while their people are away? Helping elderly neighbors with chores around the house? I know 14 year olds can’t work with power tools (no lawn mowing) but I’d bet there is something out there.</p>
<p>He has to help neighbors for free – I won’t let him take $.</p>
<p>Babysitting - must do free for siblings. The triplett cousins make him dizzy and after a few times helping me babysit them he vowed to never babysit again.</p>
<p>I suggested tutoring or teaching guitar. We’ll see. Hard for him to think about summer when there is still snow on the ground. But as summer comes around and lack of $ begins to hit he may become more resourceful :)</p>
<p>Ironically, I used to tell my husband I would NEVER let my kids work before college age. I worked since I was 13 and had 3 jobs thru high school - didn’t want that for my kids. But I also didn’t understand how expensive my kids habits would be 
Those guitars don’t buy themselves.</p>
<p>He could probably get a counselor in training job perhaps- which would not be pay, but it would be a responsibility and would be minimal pay if anything, at the camps he is already attending.</p>
<p>That is what my kids did when they were in high school and it gave them experience to get better jobs when they turned 18.</p>
<p>I think in this economy it’s hard for even older HS students to get jobs. Heck, my college son couldn’t find a job last summer. However, silverestersmom has some great suggestions. My youngest son has earned a couple of hundred dollars over the summer pet sitting and babysitting is a pretty good gig too. Around here, it pays more then minimum wage.</p>
<p>any golf clubs nearby ? Caddying ? And also, it is only February…most people who hire summer help wait until much closer to the time the jobs would begin to consider hiring</p>
<p>He could do volunteer work this summer for community service hours. He should check out the local library, hospitals, retirement homes and even not for profit day care centers or summer programs for children.</p>
<p>Jobs are near impossible at 14 unless its babysitting, lawn mowing, and the like. And camps get hard to find for that age. I agree with keeping them busy at 14. We do have camps where 14 year-olds can be CIT’s–counselor-in-training. They don’t get paid but often DON"T HAVE TO PAY TUITION/FEES. Check out the camps that the city or county or Y run for kids whose mom’s work. There are lots of camps in our area that are geared toward the elementary kids whose moms put them in day camp for the summer. They use CIT’s. And the CIT’s go with the kids bowling, skating etc. They start to learn some responsibility. Might be an option. It is alot like WORK, but they are also learning to take responsibility and they are supervised and out of the house.</p>
<p>Few hire a l4 year old in retail; unlikely. </p>
<p>Have you considered this idea: Anything that’s a huge one-time chore you’d pay another company to do, have him do it and pay half. I’m not talking about regular chores, but if you’d be paying to hire out the painting of a basement for a week, let him do it instead. Once I needed some heavy furniture/boxed book lifting around the house for a solid day, and had S-2 bring over a friend and they split the fee. I differentiate that from paying a child for regular chores, and my criterion is always that without a child I’d have to hire a company to do that task. </p>
<p>It’s dignifying and gives them a scaffold into paid work for others in their older teen years. My 20Something kids have a great work ethic and now work only for pay, and will take any job as needed when needed.</p>
<p>If not, another year of summer camp isn’t the end of the world. At least his growth spurt may happen on their time/food budget. 
CIT might be better than paying camp fees, and more interesting.</p>
<p>I think that child labor laws have essentially raised the age at which kids can start working for businesses. There are always exceptions, especially if you have connections.</p>
<p>If your son e-mails your friends letting them know of his availability to do odd jobs – babysitting, house sitting, pet sitting, lawn care – he should have no problem getting work. One of my friends’ sons did this and got plenty of jobs.</p>
<p>In addition, you could choose to pay your son to do jobs that otherwise you’d pay others to do.</p>
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<p>Maybe at 14 it’s time to let him, or at least let him advertise two neighborhoods away.</p>
<p>I’m sure that a local Goodwill or animal shelter would consider a 14 year old volunteer. This could lead to an hourly summer position next year.</p>
<p>The guitar is a great entree into volunteer work. He could make a circuit at senior homes, just playing acoustic instrumentals in the lobby or get onto their official list of activities. He’d be adored beyond belief and soon he’ll learn to play Frank Sinatra/Anderson Sisters/Duke Ellington/Billie Holiday tunes. (Summer camp is sounding better all the time, isn’t it…)</p>
<p>I can’t even count how many adult professional or semi-professional musicians I know who volunteer their time once weekly for an hour, especially mealtimes or early evening, playing their instrument in a senior center. He might begin a lifelong pattern of paying it forward.</p>
<p>I wish you lived here, myself and about 10 neighbours are looking to hire a High School student to do yard work on a weekly basis. One neighbors son started his own little bussiness about 5 or 6 years ago where he mowed lawns did gardening, raked leaves, and shoveled snow, helped with Christmas decoration in the winter and he would even house sit for an extra fee. He was a fantastic kid and everyone really liked him and trusted him. We paid him $100 a month so you figure he was making at least $1000 a month for up to twelve month a year cash so he never claimed income tax. Our neighbour hood paid for his 3 years of college.</p>
<p>Second the caddying suggestion. Hard work, but provides $$$.</p>
<p>Some families in our area could use a hand for high school graduation parties. Setting up, taking down, making sure the food & beverage areas are stocked, flipping burgers on the grill. He could make up a flyer to do that.</p>
<p>I agree with many of the suggestions here. He could likely volunteer to help with summer school, as an aide, which could lead to a job when he’s older. That helped my S, so he was the 1st person to consider when they were looking for employees after he had volunteered the prior summer.</p>
<p>My son worked as a page in the local public library at 14. Pages shelve books and do other simple chores that are too dull and repetitious to assign to unpaid volunteers. At our library, pages were only allowed to work for 6 to 10 hours a week, but they did earn money, which my son appreciated having. Perhaps your local library system also hires kids to be pages.</p>
<p>Another option – if your son likes working with children, he might want to see whether any of the local day camps are looking for unpaid counselors-in-training for the summer. Former CITs often end up working as paid counselors when they are old enough (which is probably 16).</p>
<p>Last summer my D at 14 worked for free (community service hours) at a day camp and also at a theraputic riding academy. She wanted to volunteer at the animal shelter but here you must be 18 or accompanied by your parent. She also worked as a sub as a gatekeeper at a beach. She also has a paying job as the cleanup girl at a hair salon. Most chains require you to be 18.</p>