I think it’s great if teens are genuinely mixing with a range of ages and people from different walks of life. Some will get to do that without entering the world of work.
Many though, go to school and mix with people their own age and often from similar backgrounds, see family and don’t have much involvement with people who have very different life experiences. It’s not about ‘looking in’ and purely knowing about other people in a rather voyeristic kind of way, like a sort of project or trip to the zoo. It’s about actually spending time with and getting to know individuals along the way of doing a proper job, which shows them stuff about the world and themselves and their own values and can be incredibly formative. Uni can be pretty insular in terms of age and type of person met, and then grad careers can be similar too. Some adults lack any real empathy or understanding of others, partly because they have lived in bubbles. Personally, I think that’s a narrow life experience and that a wider experience during formative teen years stands one in good stead for being a bit more open-minded throughout life.
Sometimes it’s good too, to do things which aren’t all about enriching academic study or moving ahead and gaining a competitive advantage over other young people. The shop job might not be directly related to the degree. That’s fine and doesn’t make it a waste of time, because the you g person is gaining all the skills mentioned on many posts upthread of needing to be reliable, interact with adults, grow in confidence etc. It’s not a more worthy thing to do volunteering in a field you might later work in, or to pursue a hobby extensively. These are good things too and benefit young people vastly…and some see them as ‘better’ uses of a teen’s time than working in a shop or cafe…jobs which some posters certainly seem to struggle to see much value in, and to take the view that you’d only do those if your parent didn’t give you money and as a parent you’d only let your kid do if you couldn’t afford to give them money or had no aspiration for them.
Our teens were funded for most things by us. We’d paid school fees and we paid for trips, extra curriculars, driving lessons, clothes, leisure etc. We could afford generous allowances but chose not to give as much as we might have, encouraging a few hours work, which was rewarded with cold cash from the employer, but we wanted it for the experience mostly.
And I do agree that it’s important not to let work ‘creep’ set in. Some places might ask teens to do a few extra hours or extra shifts and you do hear of some working ridiculous hours which can be to the detriment of study. Boundaries about amount if work do need to be set and stuck to as part of the deal, and one of the things kids need to learn is saying ‘no’ to extra shifts offered by managers - this saying ‘no’ and being involved in a bit of negotiation sometimes is not itself valuable and something that those who haven’t worked just dont have experience of.
In the end, of course doing paid work isn’t compulsory and all families have to choose. It won’t work for all and those with really intensive extra curriculars and long school journeys might find it more difficult or impossible in term time. All I’m saying, is it can deliver huge benefits and so it’s something worth thinking seriously about by parents. Lots might have a natural aversion to the idea and it’s worth thinking about why that is and if the real reasons are valid or it’s worth thinking about a bit more because of the benefits. Often people cite studies as a reason not to….but often this is a false reason as students can attend school, do all their homework and further study and still have time to socialise, do extra curriculars and have a small job. It’s worth considering if the reason for an aversion to teens working is to do with perceptions of certain types of work, or potential snobbish values about those jobs, or ideas about parents needing to provide all the money kids need, or work being for a different type of kid, along with thinking more about the benefits that all kids get from going into the working world to be part of a team of people of different ages and from different walks of life. Everyone needs to reach their own conclusions.
What I would say and think most parents of teens can relate to, is that many of them can waste vast amounts of time being online…phones, gaming etc etc. Nothing wrong with some of this of course and ‘downtime’ is important, but many have limited extra-curriculars going on, in reality are not studying every evening until 10pm or full days at the weekend and have scope to certainly be doing more stuff. High achievers rarely just do academics in our culture. They are often the first to volunteer, do sport a high level, play music, have wider interests, see plenty of friends and know about the wider world. The paradox is that as they are busier (to a point, of course) they become more efficient as they have to learn to manage their time. Those who only have school often don’t work excessively, just procrastinate and loll around a lot.