To think it's normal for 16/17 year olds to have part time jobs alongside their studies

[sheepdogdelight]

DD (16) has recently started a part time job - she's working 6 hours a week, around her A Levels. Older DD also worked part time when he was 16/17, stopping at the end of March in Year 13 so that he could focus on his exams.

Virtually all their peers also have/had jobs at some point or another at age 16/17 - weekend socialising was often a logistical exercise to find the best time around who was working when.

IMO it's good for them to have a job at this age - it helps them become more self confident, builds independence, allows them to gain some valuable "soft" skills. Plus of course they like the money :)

However, was talking to someone about this who looked horrified that they should be taking time away form studying to work and that her own 17 year old would certainly not be working. She also suggested it was not the norm amongst her DC's peer group.

For the record, we have had the conversation about studies must come first and if the job ever impacts on studying, they need to reconsider. However my DC (and their peers) all seem to be able to juggle perfectly well!

AIBU to think it's normal and desirable for 16/17 year olds who are studying to have jobs around their study? (I'm assuming here that there is suitable part time work available, of course - but at the moment retail/hospitality seem to have loads of vacancies).

Totally normal. It’s good for kids to earn their own money, get some independence and learn to start dealing with people outside their school, friends and family!

Yes it makes a massive difference. Time and tiredness factor too. Mine’s travelling max 2.5 hours a week v your sons 15 hrs yr 12. Her volunteering is one evening locally and hobby sat pm only. So plenty of time to work around that.

My dd also does "hard" A-levels as mentioned by a poster above (maths/chem/bio). It's perfectly possible to work part time alongside the A-level course, and have hobbies/see friends etc. DD is currently predicted 3 A*s so she is obviously doing enough work so far!

Allowance from parents. And money they’ve saved over the years from birthdays/Xmas.

My 17 dd works five nights a week after college paid for all her own driving lessons and saving for a car

My youngest didnt but he was doing plenty of other stuff to learn life skills.
Oldest was working full time at 16 so he was straight in to working life!

I do give DD an allowance too and we pay for her phone, gym, bus fare. Her money is for socialising eg concert ticket and I am encouraging some saving for Uni. I sat her down and showed her student finance calculator plus cost of some Uni accommodation other day. She’s in situation where she won’t get a full maintenance loan as we both work.

Apart from everything else pps have mentioned on here about part time jobs benefitting the individual, I think it's generally good for society for as many people as possible to get experience of basic, often low paid jobs, and how hard they can be. How often on threads about customers on here does someone suggest that everyone should have some sort of customer service experience as a modern version of national service, as that might reduce the number of people that are horrendously rude to anyone in a customer facing role.

If anything it should be the richer kids who are less likely to be in/know anyone in that sort of role who would probably benefit most from it!

I agree. Both of mine had p/t jobs alongside studying. Looks good on their cv and teaches them a lot of useful skills.

DS had a part-time job from 16 onwards, and so did most of his friends.

Personally, I think it is better for them mentally, in the 'a change is as good as a rest' kind of way.

It's a few hours when their focus is on their job, not on their studies. It gives them a true break, because if your non-study time is just 'leisure time' (watching TV or whatever) then the studies can still be lurking around in the back of your head, giving you no real time away from them. Whereas with a job, your mind is engaged with the task at hand, firmly pushing your studies out of your head. I think that's a much better thing for them.

My kids had/have jobs from 15/16. It really helps them to earn their own money and have responsibilities. It also helps with confidence and finding and getting jobs. Also, doing a slightly boring and menial job does propel them into making sure they study or do something that’s interesting.

A few shifts in McDonald’s and mine came home saying everyone should have to work in customer service for a bit. Grown men kicking off because milkshake machine is broken. It’s opened her eyes!

Completely normal. I did, all my friends did. DD1 does, all her friends do apart from one or two from very wealthy families.

Normal when I was growing up (paper round from 13ish, shop work from 16) and pretty normal round here, babysitting, bar work etc. As a shy teenager it gave me much more confidence. My 12 yo dd is desperate to start a Saturday job 😂

I was happy when I finished school and went into college. I’d got talking to a girl on the bus who told me her work were looking for staff part time, evenings and weekends. I must’ve ran there to get an application form as I started pretty quickly. I got paid cash (back in the day), those little wage slip envelopes and earning my own money.
It never interfered with my studies.
I expect my dds to work too. Looks good on your Cv. My db never worked as a student even at university. He didn’t get his first proper job until he was 23.

DS did, he worked at our local large Waitrose from 16/17 and when he went to university got a job at a small Waitrose where he was and stayed in his university city and upped his hours a lot in the holidays and then carried on with it when he had finished university and was applying for graduate jobs, so was working throughout and earned quite a lot for extras like holidays and festivals

I worked since age 15, and loved it. Work felt like part of my social life! We all got on really well, and we usually got food to take home!

Get kicked around on a rugby pitch so she can barely move three times a week?

thought not!

Please read my post before commenting. L My son earns money too - just not in regular employment, competitive sports and hobbies often don’t allow for this.

When she plays multiple school sports (not pretty in year 13 for boys, esp
rugby), does her D of E Gold, volunteers, and tutors …. and has high predicted marks, come back to me

And I’m case you missed it, he also does gardening too - so your post is pretty stupid tbh.

Having a job at that age is just normal but very positive for all the reasons you mentioned.

Ignore the person who was horrified 😂😂😂😂

Part time job and earning money, are not the same thing.

The idea of 'normal' is shit.

Some have jobs. Some don't.

It's not a one size fits all

I worked at a local department store every Saturday and did a 9-hour shift. I loved it and loved the extra cash - I would rake it in working Boxing Day etc too. I think these kind of jobs are slightly more scarce now though. I'm sure I probably stopped before revising for my A-levels but it was a long time ago now so can't really remember. It never felt like a problem and all my friends had jobs.

Ds 17 works on weekends. It’s been really positive for him in many ways - I can tell he’s feeling good about the independence

That was my thought too.

It depends what you can deal with I guess. But work at that age gives a good balance to study. Often fun too.