S25 is a lifeguard. He works about 10hrs a week at an indoor pool. Between college apps, APs, and a serious sport commitment, there’s no way he could handle anymore. I’m not sure it will last as it is honestly.
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Lifeguard here too. During the school year, she only works weekends, so 3-6 hours a week.
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Thanks! I guess I just needed to make sure that I’m not off in left field somewhere. She’s trying to save money towards a special goal and so would like to work the extra hours, but you can’t create hours in a day where there are none! I just keep saying, there are things you have to do and things you want to do. Grades and college apps are in the “have to do” category and (at the moment) work is not!
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Mine doesn’t work during the year - technically he has the time in his schedule (at least in the fall before his winter/spring sport) but he couldn’t organize himself enough to manage work and school. So not speaking from experience, but I think limiting the hours makes total sense. Even if there is some time in her schedule, it seems like every HS student I know doesn’t get enough sleep. So if she doesn’t have to have all the hours of the job, I’d say focus more on school and sleep and life.
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Mine interviews next week to become a peer writing consultant at the university’s writing center, and expects to limit that to 10 hours/week—and I’d be uncomfortable with more.
Federal law forbids full-time students from working more than 20 hours/week in on-campus employment in nearly all cases—and there’s good reason for that. 10 hours seems to work fine, but at 20 hours there’s just not enough time to thrive.
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D25 is taking the SAT this morning at a convention center! She texted after I dropped her off. 150 kids per room. 3 rooms. Fingers crossed for good Wi-Fi!!!
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My D25 too! She’s done - said she felt great the first few sections, but the later sections were MUCH more difficult (which is to be expected). She felt like she could have solved all the math problems if she had more time. The kid has major test anxiety and I totally blame the ridiculous amount of pressure her elementary school teachers put on the kids for standardized testing. It was absurd. Ok rant over 
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D25 is planning on working 2 shifts a week which will amount to 10-11 hrs. IMO this is the absolute max she can do and still manage the rest of her schedule/ECs/work load.
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Exactly how I will be!
My D worked 40 hrs/week during the summer and is a youth sports referee during the fall. About 5 hrs on the weekend and random makeup games during the week. She has her own sports in the winter and spring so no time for a job.
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My D25 is a barista. Last year she only worked about 8-10 hours/week. This summer she worked a lot. I’m not sure what this year will be. Probably closer to 12-15 hours if she can handle it. Fortunately, the owner is a parent with kids in MS. He gets it. He told me to let him know if her grades suffer.
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I’ve never heard of Xello. Do you have to use it?
D25 is trying to change her schedule so she can get work study credit. She will likely do about 18 hours a week.
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D25 works about 6 hours a week. She works M/W/F from 3-5pm. She works at an insurance agency, so they aren’t open on the weekends or holiday. It’s a pretty good gig.
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My daughter teacher swimming lessons. In the summer she’ll work 15-20 hours a week. During the school year she only takes the Sat day morning shift, so 3 hours a week. It’s not much but it makes enough for her to always have $ for the extras.
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My D25 is getting close-ish to being finished with her common app. The essay is finished, but she wants her English teacher to read it first and there is another week before school begins. She has more supplementals to write and I just can’t seem to light a fire under her to complete them. I’m hoping she’ll work on them next week before school starts again. At one school, if not more, you can’t request an interview until after you’ve applied. If she doesn’t get on it, she might not get one.
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Stupid thing that is bothering me tonight and I just need to get over…
I have been the parent that has accompanied both my kids on college tours. My husband went on one visit with older son and me, and one visit with younger son and me, but all the others have just been the boy and me.
This works best for the boys because, frankly, I let them lead the experience and ask questions and share their thoughts. My spouse is a great guy, but has Definite Opinions. From things like how X was when he went to school (and it was so much better) to how he thinks my S25 should spend his time on campus, where he should go and what questions he should ask. I know S25 doesn’t like it - he likes to follow the general tour and he might ask a question, he might not. Then after the tour is over there’s things he wants to see, and they aren’t generally what my spouse thinks is important. So I tend to just be a better tour buddy.
Plus, I love it. I won’t lie, I love these trips. It’s good one on one time with my boys and I love the time with them.
S25 has one school left that he hasn’t visited, we’ve been planning to go check it out in October. But he just got invited to an out-of-state prospective student day on a Friday in September, then a tailgate and football game on Saturday. He is SO EXCITED. To make it even better for him, that Saturday football day happens to also be his 18th birthday, and he’s stoked about spending it at an SEC game.
The problem? To get there in time for all this we probably need to leave mid-day Thursday. He’ll miss a few hours of school Thursday and Friday. That’s not an issue. I’ll need to take leave, which normally isn’t an issue, but…. That’s my first week at my new job.
I’ll have the leave, but it seems really uncool to say “hey new boss, so glad to be here, let me just work 3.5 days my first week.” Sigh. It will be my first week, they certainly won’t miss me, as I’ll barely even have learned where the bathrooms are and certainly won’t know much of anything else. It’s just not quite the way I wanted to start…
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If you can afford to financially, offer to take that time off unpaid. So, they know you want to be a team player, and you aren’t expecting to use your vacation before you even know how to request it, but also, you have this thing you need to do, and it was scheduled before you started the job.
That’s how I’ve handled it before when I had a trip planned and a new job landed on my plate right before the date of the trip. And it went just fine.
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Heck I’ve told my new employer, hey I have these 3 one to two week trips planned over the next 6 months. Taking 1.5 days to spend with your kid shouldn’t be an issue and if it is, it might be a red flag! It’s always awkward, but also best to rip the bandaid off early on this type of thing!
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Made it through the first official gathering for senior class families for S25 last night, and it was fine. My husband and I went to the outside of the group where other wallflowers were hanging out, and a couple of people came up to talk to us who were also not interested in being in the middle of the socializing crowd. It is always a relief to find people who take a similar approach to the stresses of high school and parenting as you do, and these two parents were definitely in line with us.
We got the lowdown on some traditional events that we are expected to participate in from the class parent leaders. And among the parents we talked to, we all commiserated about how hard it is to watch our kids go through the college application process, and how we now are all shaking our heads as the kids try to cram in their summer homework in the one last day they have before school starts.
Here’s hoping that it is a good year…or at least that it has more highs than lows!
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