Doesn’t it get harder to keep them busy the older they get?  It’s not that they need entertaining as such, but engaging them in meaningful activity is somewhat of a challenge! Some of you will already know that as well as the girls, I have a 16 year old boy.  He’s not a bad lad by any stretch of the imagination but the thought of him spending nearly 3 months in his room playing ******* before he starts 6th Form fills me with dread.  It doesn’t feel like productive time at all.

I was a little jealous when I read Kate’s post talking about her teens work experience.  My boy needs something like that!  But opportunities for young people seem so few and far between these days.

I have wanted him to try and find a job, and to date this has proved fruitless.  Where have all the Saturday jobs gone that we used to do when we were kids?  Or is he taking me for a bit of a ride!  He’s being a bit picky I must admit, which won’t help him in adulthood that’s for sure.

Teaching teens life skills is a full time job in itself as they are a bit lazy, and do need several nudges in the right direction.  My hands are a bit tied at the moment being busy looking after his little sisters and he does take advantage of this a bit, a lot!  But he’s 16, and taking advantage isn’t a skill that pays the bills in the real world, especially when used to avoid some hard work!

He helps out at home when asked and he does have set jobs around the house, so he’s not left to his own devices all the time but he still needs adult guidance and a bit of carrot and stick action to keep him on track.

Luckily for us, my husband is a software engineer and teen is working on some coding for his website, MCSERVERLIST (it’s something to do with Minecraft & servers and that’s about all I know) but that in itself requires management as they get frustrated with each other.  Progress is being made though, which is a step in the right direction and teen is gaining skills in an area he wants to pursue as a career, so this I’m happy about, but is it enough?

Do you have teens?  Do they do any kind of paid work?  Should I be pushing for him to get some part time job or am I flogging a dead horse in today’s job market?

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16 COMMENTS

  1. i have trouble getting my 34 year old boyfriend to do things other than sitting on the sofa playing fifa over the holidays, so i can identify in small part! we have no money to spend so i try and encourage him to go on walks with me but he rarely does, bah.

    totally with you on the saturday jobs too ..where have they gone? there used to always be loads around.

  2. my teen is a nightmare lately wont do anyhting and just slops around the house in a frump at any inkling of adventure , lol x

  3. I don’t envy you wanting to find your son something to do other than staying in his room playing computers. getting him some work experience would be great and will be so beneficial to him and YOU! Hope you find something xx

  4. I have a 14 yr old (and a 10 & 2 yr old) and she can’t WAIT until she can have a job! She really wants to babysit, which I’m sure will come soon, but her dream is to get an actual job. We’ll see if the passion continues once she HAS to go in for a shift when she’s rather be on Pinterest pinning. 😛

    P.S. Found this post via Mommy Blogger Share group on FB. 🙂

  5. Volunteering can be a good option. My daughter’s 15 and hasn’t been able to find a Saturday job so she’s volunteering at the local hospice charity shop on Saturday mornings. She really enjoys it and is learning skills which should help her get some paid work when she’s a bit older.

  6. Yes, yes it does! If my son had his was he’d spend 6 weeks on the XBox and never see daylight. I know what you mean about jobs to. I had a paper round at 12 but they don’t really have them so much anymore, and I was working part time at 15, but new labour laws mean you can’t even get a Saturday job at the local newsagent anymore. I think volunteering does instill a good work ethic and is a great way of giving back – that and showing teenager they aren’t the most hard done by contingent in the world 😉

  7. I have to admit that I am frustrated that kids cannot get jobs until they are 16 these days. We have just gone through the application process with my 17 year old and even supermarket online applications are a nightmare – no wonder they shy away from them.
    We ended up standing over him and helping him fill them out – he got an interview, got the job and started yesterday…….amazing what a bit of support can do ;0)

  8. I hope you find a way of keeping him busy over the Summer. I will be trying to keep a 4 year old busy, using #b4Sept as my heart is broken about my little boy starting school.
    I am glad that they have the website to work on – didn’t realise Saturday jobs were so hard to get now 🙁 but I do hear everyday in the news about youth unemployment – not at all like when we were young when I took my part-time jobs for granted. ONE year when I couldn’t get a PT job, I relied on McDonald’s instead. Has he tried that?They’re actually really structured to work for and the pay and training is really good. Everyone has one near by right?
    Liska xx

  9. I don’t have teens but it’s issues exactly like this that terrify me. The world is such a different place from when we were that age. Good luck, I hope he finds something soon.

  10. I have a teen too! He was given summer work for his A level’s that he will be taking and he is nearly finished all of the assignments – for the summer work. I think he may be planning a lazy breaK!!

  11. I would say get teen a job asap.
    Young people need to know what work means.
    I am amazed sometimes when I met people who never worked… why? they parents never worked so why bother…. it is making my cross as we have to pay for the lazy bunch!
    By all means I didn’t want to imply that your teen is a lazy one… after all he is working on coding 🙂

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