My S23 had his first job this summer. He HAS to work to earn money for college. We would have made him start summer work 2 years ago, but he had surgery and couldn’t risk COVID in summer 2020. In 2021, he had barely been vaccinated and some travel plans didn’t jive well. He also was initially having a difficult time reintegrating after being homebound for over a year. In hindsight, I wish we would have made him work anyway.
I cannot overstate how beneficial his summer job has been. He has learned all the usual lessons, and then some. He dragged his feet on finding a job and we had to force him into it. He didn’t particularly like his job, but we made him stick with it for the summer. He went and worked hard. He couldn’t wait to quit but they told him he can come back anytime, and a bonus showed up on his last paycheck today! We strongly encouraged him to work a bit during this final school year, but said it wasn’t required. Much to our surprise he really took initiative to find a better paying, easier job that he starts this weekend, and is so enthusiastic to be earning a bit more money. He already knows he’s expected to do a paid internship every summer in college.
I can’t believe the change in this child. It reinforced our belief that everyone should work a low-paying job dealing with the public at some point. If he had been doing extensive volunteer work, we wouldn’t require a job (but we can’t afford that anyway). S26 is already on notice that he’ll be working every summer starting next year, in order to put money away for college.
If we were in a better financial situation, we’d probably be more flexible but still require lots of volunteering, or a job for spending money.