<p>DD worked 15 hours/week, participated in marching band & cross country, & took APs. IMO it was rediculous. She was up until 1:00 am many mornings doing homework during the fall, but she knew that spring would be more of a down time with 1 less EC. Some people who require little sleep & have good time management skills can do it. Our current senior has a weekend only job at Target. When he applied he told them he could only work weekends & they hired him anyway. Since it's retail they close early enough that he still has a social life after work. His boss is considerate in scheduling too, so that he never has to work both friday & saturday nights in the same weekend. If your student is a good worker & reliable there are jobs out there where the company will be willing to work with their schedule.</p>
<p>Some employers are much more willing to be flexible than others, which is a key component to making the situation work. My d is able to list her availability by the week, so if she has a performance or other obligation, she won't be scheduled for that day. She can also take entire weeks off when necessary without penalty. Around here, grocery stores and retailers seem the least forgving w/r/t scheduling. One local grocer requires 20 hours per week of its part-timers, including at least one school afternoon or evening, which can be burdensome.</p>
<p>Some ECs, even demanding ones, lend themselves more readily to a part-time job than others. Many school ECs don't have weekend obligations, though some do, especially athletics. Heavy involvement in theater certainly wouldn't leave much time for a job.</p>
<p>my daughter didn't have a paying job generally in high school. WHat she did do was start volunteering 8 hours a week on weekends once she turned 12 and 3 or 4 times a week during the summer ( back to 8 hrs plus a few hours after school) working with the pony program at the local zoo till she was 18. Combined with working as a WIT ( wrangler in training) at a local residential camp summers until she was old enough to be riding staff , this gave her experience to do something she loved, and get further training with it.
She didn't need much extra money in high school as she didn't need to pay for transportation ( no car) and to her mothers chagrin was still wearing the same clothes every year. It also gave her time to participate in ( track and vocal ensemble senior year and the musical every year) at her high school even though the result was that we had few family vacations and we never saw her but we knew where she was!</p>
<p>I have to admit the volunteer work has been a help concerning admission to college. Having 2 or 3 fine letters of reference from noted and unusual places does help and we are now finding many of Sons friends with higher scores are NOT getting accepted to the same colleges. But they need a real job. It started out as impatience at 16 and now at 18 I 'd call it languishing.
Digmedia; I don't know how your son does it. Is he involved in shooting the videos or the technical aspect? He is striking me here as one kid who can do it all.
And Fendergirl; I was wondering about your handle. So it comes from the Harley shop! lol</p>
<p>bhg - He leads a crew of about 4, all doing shooting, mostly from the top of the pressbox. He also has a handheld camera and roams the sidelines for on-the-field shots and for shots that are specifically for the highlights reel (kids in school-colors-paint acting wierdly, cheerleaders, band people, etc). He does almost all of the technical work, including the editing and - in the case of the highlights reel - the music editing and animation graphics, as well as the DVD production (menus, scene selection, coaches interviews, etc). The number of hours is unbelievable. The individual game editing has been relieved somewhat since the school went into a new athletic division. Now the game films are done ONLY by the home teams and shared with the visiting team. They also have gone to a 4 camera system (plus the hand-held), one doing offense, one doing defense, one for special teams, and one for recording all three, and that has cut down a lot of the editing time for the coaches cut. But the highlights reel still takes almost every minute of his week-long Thanksgiving break to put together (with one other assistant, who ends up living at our house for most of the week). He then sells the DVDs for $20 each (and splits the profit with the one helping him put it together). But on an hourly rate, it must work out to like twenty-five cents per hour. He's been doing this for three years and I'll bet that he is looking forward to going to college and NOT doing it again.</p>
<p>My daughter worked every summer as a camp counselor or at a daycare when she was in high school and then babysat during the school year. She was very involved in EC's though so I don't think a rigid schedule would have worked. Babysitting is a great flexible job. In fact, last year (her first break from College) she worked at Toys R Us and hated it. This year she just took babysitting jobs and had a much more relaxed break. As an education major, kids are her focus and she can get between $7.00 and $10.00 an hour. Most of her jobs were daytime hours when stay at home Mom's wanted to shop. She's also working at school 5 - 10 hours a week so didn't need as much money.</p>
<p>Older son on the other hand has been a real slacker. I didn't want him working during the school year because of the tough junior schedule and his goal of getting his Eagle in Boy Scouts. He was in camp for four weeks of last summer and then on vacation with us for one, marching band was evenings for two weeks so it would have been a VERY flexible employer to allow all that. This summer though, he's got to get a job. He'll be done with BS and too old for camp. He'd like to be a counselor just to see the camp friends but his camp pays next to nothing for counselors in training. A couple of his friends were talking about getting jobs at local Walmart or K-Mart as evening stockers and that sounds like a good idea. He likes to stay up half the night playing computer games anyway.... </p>
<p>Youngest son is the real entrepreneur. At 11, he has been watching the neighbors pets for two years when they go on vacation and also has been the coat taker at our neighbors annual party. He has four times as much saved as his older brother!</p>
<p>My senior has worked for the past year about 16 hours a week. She works Sat. and Sunday in a local store. She has set hours so that helps with scheduling issues. Once a month she has some EC activity on one of the day so arranges to leave a little early. She ended up having to drop her fall sport but she enjoys working much more.
Some of her friends work but many do not. </p>
<p>She has continue on the AP path with no drop in grades. She doesn't work for the money though she will have a nice sum save for extras in college. What it gives her is confidence and self-esteem which has been priceless. She doesn't have much social life but she is done Sat night by 6 so she could still go out if she wanted.<br>
It has been a problem though with planning college visits when she has no weekend free day.</p>
<p>I had a part-time job for almost two years of high school. I was also on the track team during those years and was enrolled in all of the AP/Honors courses that I could take. But I had it easy. The schoolwork was not difficult at all (this would hurt me in my first two years of college) and I never desired to have a busy social life. Most of that took place during track practice and ECs. I only worked on the weekends (two 8 hour shifts). I know some students who worked 40 hours per week but they never took a book home. I also know some college students who work 40 hours and still have a full course load, and some of them are engineers. But that reflects in their low GPAs.</p>
<p>Getting the students out of their comfort zone does wonders for their maturity...</p>
<p>Just a couple hours of week either working a paying part time job or volunteering makes a huge difference if the young person interacts with adults or the general public. It seems to help the young person develop confidence, responsibility and maturity.</p>
<p>backhand, my handle is actually after fender guitars :) i play a '68 fender guitar. although at the harley manufacturing plant, they have machines that are called "fender benders." :)</p>
<p>yeah.. i don't know how i do it.. i work 32 hours/week as a sales rep at the marriott. i still managed to get a 4.0 last trimester though, so that was good. i think it definately has to do with time management skills and the individual though. i have worked all throughout high school including my freshman year. i however, did not work 6 months of my sophomore year. those 6 months that i did not work, my grades dropped trimendously b/c i was always out partying with my friends, and well.. behaving "sophomoric." having a job has made me mature and given me goals in life, goals i know won't be accomplished without an education, so it all connects in a way. </p>
<p>however, when i get to college i'm only going to work 1 day/week (hopefully sunday) b/c i want to have a better time and not be working so much since that is all i'm going to be doing when i get out of college.</p>
<p>I really don't see the point of having children work long hours during the school year if they don't need to help support the family. There are plenty of other ways to learn time management and responsibility. I prefer to have my kids put their energy into studying, volunteering and having some fun. They will be working for the rest of their lives once they get out of school; what's the rush?</p>
<p>The way to manage this for a kid with heavy academics and ecs is to find something with earning potential related to those skills and interests -- and that has built in flexibility. My son tutored math, taught kung fu, made money playing music, and did computer tech work. One of his friends taught saxophone to a younger child. All this was a few hours here or there -- more over the summer -- showed the depth of his interests, and yet supplied him with pocket money. Many of these things started out with volunteering, then evolved into ways to earn. He was responsible for earning his entertainment and gas money in high school, and it was excellent training. In college, he's responsible for his spending money in a very expensive city and he knows the value of a buck.</p>
<p>My daughter worked at restaurants through high school and college. She didn't have a lot of ecs. She was just a kid who really wanted to work and got a lot of satisfaction being competent in the workplace. I remember the first time I saw her behind the counter serving someone -- I couldn't believe how friendly, unflappable, and efficient she was. We allowed it in high school because we were happier to see her working part time than just hanging out. I do think it interfered at times with her academics. But she always said she managed her time much better when she was working as well as going to school. She got a full-time, benefits paying job a week after graduating college and her job skills have made her extremeley valuable to her employer. She did things her way and they have worked out for her.</p>
<p>As for the benefits of working -- I think both our kids understand what they've been given because they've seen how long it takes to earn things. But, also, there are people skills that you must develop in the workplace. In my son's case, these included how to control a room full of five year olds wound up from kicking and punching. In my daughter's case, they included learning how to train people who learn less quickly than she does.</p>
<p>pattykk - HS students have plenty of expenses these days. My wife and I continue to pay for essentials - food, clothing, school needs, and so on, but I think that there are many discretionary expenses that the student must cover. Some are given allowances and must live within that budget. Others work to get discretionary money. </p>
<p>I also think that it's important for the student to have some stake in college expenses. In our case, the parents will pay for the necessities not covered by scholarships: room, board, books, fees, etc. But we will require our kid to fund his own fun (pizzas, dates, whatever...). One good way to get started on that is to have an account just for this.</p>
<p>We do still give our son a small allowance (just about enough for gas to get to school and work and back), but for everything else, it's up to him. Luckily he has some skills to bring in some big bucks for college savings and a small part-time job for additional expense money. When he takes a date out to dinner and a movie, it can easily top $40. But he's got a sense of what it takes to earn that $40 of fun.</p>
<p>I would not want him to work more than the hours he does every week. It's just enough now, without slowing him down from other studies and pursuits.</p>
<p>Once my kids were seniors and had cars, they were responsible for their own gas (we continued to pay for the insurance and maintainence). They each worked at local stores or movie theatres one evening per week from around 4-8 and either Saturday or Sunday afternoon. They did have very flexible employers. All three continued with a 3-4 AP courses, volunteer work and a couple of EC's. Yes, there were some nights when they were burning the midnight oil, but they all managed to graduate near the top of the class and are doing very well in college. Like the poster above mentioned, they were able to pick up a few hours over Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break, and were rehired the following summer. It wasn't so much the amount of money they earned (though they took pride in starting to pay for some of their own expenses) but the responsibilty and people skills they learned on the job that I think are very important.</p>
<p>patty for example - i was never given an allowance, and was expected to get a job if i wanted to have money to do things.. like if i wanted to drive, i had to pay my insurance.. if i wanted a car, i had to buy it.. i got my first credit card when i was 16, and right now i have such good credit built that i didn't even need a cosigner for my car that I bought in November, and i'm only 21. my roommates at college have also been working since they were 14/16 (depending on what state they were from).. and the five of us are great at managing our money, and time management.. we have some other friends that never worked in high school, don't work in college, their mom gives them like a 200 dollar allowance every month, and I really find that rediculous. Someone that is 22 years old and in college should not be getting an allowance. By the time you're that old you should be earning your own money. Plus, once you graduate you're at the bottom of the pile as far as work experience goes.</p>
<p>having a job shows them how long one needs to work to pay for those expensive jeans or even a movie. I find that my D is much more thoughtful about spending my money as well.<br>
She has learned what my mom used to tell us kids that "money doesn't grow on trees"</p>
<p>So...in order to get a job you need experience, but in order to get experience you need a job.....can someone explain this??</p>
<p>You don't need experience to get a job, but you need to be willing to work at the level of your experience.</p>
<p>Which would be none?? What???</p>